For Catholic Independent Schools of the Vancouver Archdiocese, the new school year begins Sept. 2. High school teacher Kamilah Thorpe shared her vision for creating a loving environment for students at a Faith Formation Day for hundreds of educators Aug. 28.
Teachers have an amazing power to build up kids on a strong foundation of love, belonging, and a true sense of worth.
I studied at Holy Trinity Elementary and St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary in North Vancouver. I graduated from STA in 2007 and went on to work for a few years in sales and marketing for a couple different companies. I finally had a pretty good job from a financial and work-environment perspective when I realized I just wanted to work with kids.
I finished my BEd two years ago and am now a teacher at my old high school, STA. My STA friends are the ones who taught me how to climb out of windows in a kilt. The friends I have from STA have been my anchor amid so many life changes and moves. I am still very close with some of them, even after moving all over the country for almost 10 years. These friends are a breath of fresh air to me in a world where it is very counter-cultural to live a life that is positive, free, and centred on Catholic morals.
I wanted to work at STA to give back to that school and be part of the gift that I received. I want my students to have the same experience that I had.
We make up a community that is incredibly strong and fruitful for our students and their families. That is something I am so thankful for. That is something I am proud of.
By the time kids reach the age of 15, many of them have adult scars, and their hearts are still too fresh to even know how they’ve been hurt. As a teacher, I have the power to tell them that their brokenness does not make up who they are; that they are loved and wanted, not only by me, but by the Master and Maker of the entire universe. I can tell them they are not alone, because Jesus became human to be with them in their hurt, and to heal them.
I love that in a Catholic school I have the freedom to express that in an honest and open way, and our students can too.
When a kid comes to me with tears in their eyes because they are stressed and at the end of their rope, I can tell them that I care about them, and that they are free to do and believe whatever they want, but that when I’m stressed I take the time to sit in quiet with God and ask him to help me through. I can offer to take them with me to our school chapel and tell them I believe Jesus is there and listening to them.
I can tell them that I will pray for them. Praying for someone is active; it’s saying: “I am actually going to take your side before the power of God and be with you in your struggle.” It is so much more powerful than, “I’m sorry, I hope you feel better.”
I can tell a kid that they are worth something, that I am sincerely glad to see them when they show up at my class, and that if they counted themselves as worthless and took their own life, I would cry inconsolably. I can tell them that not only because it’s true, but it is true at an even more intense level for me because I see a beautiful child of God. I can tell them passionately that they are worth something and that the Creator of the entire universe loves them and made them with a purpose.
When I see my students’ spunk, their zest for life, and their beautiful, simple idealism, it inspires me, and reminds me that God is good, and that he creates beautiful things. And I can tell them that.
Sometimes my students jump out of windows and run along the edge of the construction site, sometimes they spray Axe and punch each other, sometimes they end up with Gatorade all over their pants, sometimes they lose their pants – “but it’s not my fault, Ms. Thorpe, ‘so-and-so’ pulled them down!”
Whatever crazy, attention-seeking, immature, or dangerous thing they decide to do on a given Monday morning, I know deep down that they are worth something and they need someone to tell them that.
I will always believe that there is a God, and that he made me, and he made those kids, and he must be good, because there is beauty in the world that always shines through the cracks of our brokenness.
I will always believe that, no matter where I work, regardless of whether or not people even know that I am Catholic. The joy that I have in my daily life is rooted in that belief.
Kamilah Thorpe teaches English and Math at St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary in North Vancouver.
