In Learning You Teach and in Teaching You Learn

Di suatu selasa sore, seperti biasa, I was giving a one hour English tutor to my kids. Mereka tiga-tiganya baru berumur 6 tahun, kelas 1 SD. Biasanya, sebelum pelajaran dimulai, celotehan mereka setiap ngeles ga jauh-jauh dari, "Ko, liat deh aku ada kotak pensil baru. Bagus ga?", "Ko, tadi aku ulangan Bahasa Inggris di sekolah dapet 96 lho!", "Ko, kemarin aku pergi main di Kids Sania. Seru banget!". Ya.. Layaknya anak-anak berumur 6 tahun yang lain pada umumnya.

But on that evening, I had my jaw dropped when I heard one of my kids named Madeline randomly saying this, in English (which they never talk to me in English unless I tell them to), "Ko Ko Ko" (sambil poking my hand), "Yes?" I replied. And she went, "I don't stop when I'm tired, I stop when I'm done." Well, as a good English teacher, I should have responded Madeline back in English, walaupun cuma sekedar pujian kaya "Wow, awesome!" atau "That's really excellent!". Tapi pada saat itu, gw speechless banget, ga ada satu katapun yg keluar dari mulut gw, saking ga nyangkanya seorang anak umur 6 tahun bisa ngomong kaya gitu.

Jasica, Madeline, Jolinda
My Brilliant Students

To be honest, I was really having a bad day at that moment, lagi banyak masalah dan ga tau harus keep struggling or just quit. Bisa-bisanya Tuhan berbicara lewat murid gw sendiri. Dan setiap kata yg keluar dari mulut Madeline itu menampar dan bikin gw melek banget. She will not stop when she's tired, she will stop when she's done. Kenapa gw ga bisa? Masa gw kalah sama anak kecil? And I eventually took it as a challenge, setelah 2 menit cengo merenungkan kata-kata bijak dari Madeline.

When I got home, gw berpikir lagi, kejadian sore itu bukan cuma sekedar tentang "persistence". Kejadian sore itu juga bukan sekedar tentang "prinsip". Kalau kita berpikir lebih jauh lagi, it was basically emphasizing on "learning". Kita bisa belajar kapan aja, dimana aja, dari siapa aja. Bahkan ketika kita sedang mengajarpun kita belajar. So keep your eyes, ears, and mind opened, because in learning you teach and in teaching you learn. Cheers!