File this under the file labeled ‘Awww.’ A 9-year-old girl handwrote her teacher this letter after he came out during a class lesson on homophobia, and it’s safe to say she aced this one.
Unfortunately there are millions of people in the world who aren’t quite as emotionally intelligent as a little girl. Come on, world, keep up.
It reads:
Dear Mr R,
Even though you’re gay, I will always treat you the same way as I do now. I still think about you the same way as I used to. You’re a great teacher and these are just some of the word’s (sic) that I would describe you as: great, amazing, fantastic, brilliant, awesome and brave.
The reason why I say brave is because you shared a personal secret which was very brave.
You don’t have to feel scared because I know that everyone in the class feels the same way as I do.
From A x x
PS: We are all proud of you
The teacher told PinkNews:
“As a primary school teacher, I’d always worried about mentioning my sexuality, despite the fact that my colleagues talked about their husbands, wives and significant others all the time.
“Then, as part of anti-bullying week, I’d asked who’d heard ‘gay’ being used as an insult. Almost every one of my class put their hands up. I was stunned.
“Then I asked who thought that people who were gay or lesbian were bad or wrong in some way, again almost every hand went up.
“After speaking to my Head, who was very supportive, we agreed I could tell the class that I’m gay so they at least knew one gay person and hopefully explain that when people use that word, they’re talking about me.
“The reaction was fantastic – there were a lot of gasps and shocked looks and some basic questions – do you have a boyfriend, etc – but after a couple of minutes they were over it and we moved on to the rest of the lesson.
“The letter came a couple of days later. The little girl who wrote it gave it to me at the start of the day with all the other slips about dinner money, school trips and doctors appointments.
“Reading it brought tears to my eyes and it took me a little while to compose myself. When I thanked her, she just shrugged and repeated something one of the boys in the class had said during the lesson, ‘It’s just your life’. Then she went back to her maths.
“For my class it was a surprise, sure, but to them, it was just something simple and easy to file away as another piece of information. There was no judgement, no follow up, just acceptance.
“Now, I can mention my fiancé as easily as any other teacher and my class knows me a little better. I’ve had a lot of letters and cards over the years, but this one I know I’ll keep forever.”
That very ironic moment when kids are the adults adults fail to be.
Word!
And awwwww…
Kids are the cutest things ever! Its amazing how they are often more in touch with their humanity than the rest of us!
Aswear! Sometimes its as if you cross a certain threshold as you get older, and you lose your humanity at that juncture.
So, would you rather have one and have one more in touch to be with?
@Jboy, No I am fine thankyou!
I am not wired to be a parent, I love kids tho!
I wonder if nine year olds in Nigeria know the meaning of that world.
This is so sweet and cute.
Homophobia»nigeriaphobia»selfphobia.hmmm
The innocency of a child! Like a cascading fountain in desert places…………
This would certainly be for keeps if it were me…..infact my goodluck charm in paper and ink….
Andrevn, I really hope u’re not serious with “innocency”.
Why? Nothing wrong with ‘innocency’ that i can think of.
Chestnut abeg rest!
Nwoke oyibo; don’t spoil this awwww moment biko!
Lol…oya calm down. (I really thought he was joking with that one…*innocent grin*)
Chestnut sef eh. Hahahahaa. Youre so going to hell, whether ‘innocency’ or guilty.
Growing up i was the sweetest innocent looking kid you could think of …….still is
I know some are daredevils in childskin……….but hey! Who wasn’t?
I’ve said it before, internal homophobia is cultivated while you’re still young. If you learn at a young age that being gay is normal, you won’t have any problem as a grown up…
*dabs*
Such Sweetness. Bless you, Child.
This deserves a serious Awwwwwwwwww, that’s so sweet.
Wow..
Hmmm..
Luke 18:16. Matthew 19:14
Bless You Kid….I’m sure if this kid was to be in 9ja… D parent go flog am tire…
This Child and her entire class deserve hugs!!! Lawd this is the sweetest thing ever!
Dont be fooled though, for every well informed 9 year old like this are about ten misinformed ones, but this is a win and i’ll take it. So adorable.
Wow! Awwwwh! This is so touching.
Wow we do need to keep up! This is amazing story, thank you for sharing! 🙂
Aww…. 😥
Awwwwwwww…
If ds happened in Nigeria,half of d parents would withdraw dia kids from dt school if d school hasn’t sacked d teacher yet.
I take this whole story with a bit of skepticism cause the Internet is full of lies and shii.. but if it’s true I will go with the general reaction of awwwwn. How cute.
Awwwww…. wake up guys! You’ll only ever be able to read and ‘ooh’ and ‘awww’ about this! As long as you live in Nigeria, this will never be your story! Nigerians have homophobia encoded in their dna and once they r past their 7th or 8th birthday, it rears its ugly head!
Awwww, the letter you get from the kid that’s got a crush on you.
And I dreamt where this happened in Nigeria…