{"id":7348,"date":"2024-09-27T09:29:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-27T09:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/?p=7348"},"modified":"2025-02-12T08:47:32","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T08:47:32","slug":"esther-amito-inspiring-masses-through-the-teaching-profession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/2024\/09\/27\/esther-amito-inspiring-masses-through-the-teaching-profession\/","title":{"rendered":"Esther Amito: Inspiring Masses through the Teaching Profession"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Esther\u2019s life took a turn when she joined Primary Five and started getting support for her education at Meeting Point International (MPI) in 2008, where she continued her journey until Primary Seven. After her primary education, Esther joined Luigi Giussani High School for her secondary school education where she met faces that accompanied her to discover herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRose Busingye always said that parents often keep their children sheltered, preventing them from experiencing the world,\u201d Esther recalls a statement her mother always said to her. This inspired her to step out of her comfort zone, initially to impress her mother, but later to embrace the opportunities that awaited her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first time I met Rose, I felt favoured, and later on I realised I was starting to discover myself,\u201d Esther says with tears in her eyes. Esther\u2019s early life was marred by domestic violence, having witnessed her father abuse her mother. This left her with a deep-seated resentment towards men except her brothers. \u201cI never liked sitting with men or even talking to them,\u201d she admits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, everything changed when she met Rose at Community School. Rose\u2019s powerful words, \u201cOur lives have meaning and we have a value,\u201d sparked a realisation in Esther\u2019s life and a shift of perspective. It made her question the cycle of abuse she had experienced, and she realised that not all men are like her father and that he is not a beast like she thought. In this moment she began to heal and even re-discover love for her father\u2019s memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esther felt liberated from the shackles of self-doubt and hatred when she joined Luigi Giussani High School. She was inspired by her teacher of English, Vastina, who treated her students with kindness and respect: \u201cShe treated us like her own children while maintaining discipline,\u201d Esther reflects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This nurturing environment ignited her passion for teaching, transforming her from a victim of circumstance into a beacon of hope and dreams. Following her academic path, she pursued her dream as a teacher\u2014she was offered a job to become a teacher of English and literature at Progressive Senior Secondary School, Kitintale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Esther during an English Class<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

She carried with her the understanding of human value right from her school as a student, and her commitment to her value as a person is evident in her classroom. She starts her Monday classes by inquiring, \u201cHow was your weekend?\u201d This straightforward question not only sets a positive tone for her week by allowing her students to feel comfortable talking to her about anything in class, but it also allows her to gauge the mood of her students. In her teaching, she emphasises that \u201ctrue value lies beyond academic results,\u201d showing her students that realising they are precious is essential to realising their aspirations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Affectionately known as Kampala City Council Authority (KCCA) by her students, she is relentless in her efforts to keep the school clean. \u201cBefore I start teaching, I remind my students to tidy up their space; sometimes I don\u2019t even have to speak about it; they do it upon seeing me,\u201d she says with a smile on her face. Her conventional teaching methods faced scepticism; \u201cmy fellow teachers at the school found it challenging to understand my approach,\u201d she recalls. But Esther\u2019s dedication to fostering her students\u2019 development soon won them over. Many students expressed their gratitude, saying she is not just a teacher to them but a friend who had supported them throughout their academic careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Esther, teachers ought to ensure a warm atmosphere that motivates students to attend school. She opposes the idea of traditional corporal punishment in favour of dialogue and mutual understanding; \u201cnot everything is solved by a stick,\u201d she asserts, advocating for empathy in discipline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says that her exceptional skills and compassionate approach earned her the role of head of the languages department. When asked about what memory in her student days is still stuck in her mind and why, she says, \u201cI could say that when the former Education Advisor of Luigi Giussani High School Matteo Severgnini (Seve) discovered a student urinating on the school fence, he told the student to clean the entire fence. This, in my opinion, sparked a learning about how non-living things are just as valuable as living things because the fence kept the school safe for us students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Esther, teaching is not just a profession; it is a calling. \u201cI feel fortunate for having discovered this early in my life,\u201d she shares. Knowing that you are important and you have a value are the cornerstones of her relationships with students and their parents. \u201cWhat brings me joy is hearing my students\u2019 say, \u2018Thank you for helping me love myself\u2019,\u201d she concludes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by Catherine Namirimu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Esther\u2019s life took a turn when she joined Primary Five and started getting support for her education at Meeting Point International (MPI) in 2008, where she continued her journey until Primary Seven. After her primary education, Esther joined Luigi Giussani High School for her secondary school education where she met faces that accompanied her to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories-of-hope"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7348"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9214,"href":"http:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7348\/revisions\/9214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/meetingpoint-int.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}