Mensagem Da Manu: World Teacher’s Day
I am Emanuelle de Souza, Sargent Shriver International Global Messenger, but I am an athlete and a student too.
Today we are celebrating the World Teacher’s Day — — and I’d like to talk about teachers and coaches, since they are so important for us athletes! I’ll begin with my early experiences in Special Olympics and as a student in school.
At school I used to be very shy, but teachers loved me. I used to have the same group of friends for my entire middle school and they were few. I always got support from my teachers, when I had difficulties from concentrating they helped me. Also, I always practiced sports at school.
About sports, I discovered my passion for soccer when I was 7 years old, at APAE (Associação de Pais e Amigos dos Excepcionais) and years later I started training beach volleyball, and I trained almost daily. Because of this, Special Olympics discovered me in 2013.
I started competing in Special Olympics in 2013 on my first local games, then in 2014 I competed on National Games, and in 2015 I represented my country, Brazil, at the World Games in Los Angeles, where we got a Bronze medal for football.
In December 2017, we competed on Beach Volleyball and classified to the Abu Dhabi World Games. In July of last year, 2018, we won a Silver medal at the first Unified World Cup in Chicago, playing football as well.
These achievements belong to me, the team and my coach.
The coach is very important for the team, just like a the teacher is very important for the students! Some traits they must have, in my opinion, are: Being patient, not rushing or pressuring; being a good listener; being disciplined and strict, but friendly; being good at treating the individual while thinking of the group; and good partnership… because COACHES and TEACHERS are PARTNERS.
Patience: some people have issues learning things at first, but if the coach or the teacher is patient and repeats as many times as the athletes or students need, it will be better for everyone and the lesson will be learned successfully!
Good Listener: a teacher and a coach need to listen so they can understand the athlete and the student’s situation.
Strict but Friendly: a strict attitude is important for students and athletes to understand discipline, but words and interaction don’t need to be harsh, they can achieve the same with a friendly communication.
Individual and Collective Outlook: to look at the individual’s skills and how to make it work as a group. This teaches us inclusion, both in and out of the playing field or school!
Being a good partner: to demonstrate to your athletes and students that they can always count on you.
COACHES AND TEACHERS ARE A ROLE MODELS! We look up to them, even if they are not aware of their impact on our lives. And they definitely leave a mark on our education and our life, forever!
And that is also why I believe Athlete Leadership to be so important. I think it’s a great way to strengthen Athlete’s skills outside the playing field. We have such powerful, talented people that can, together, transform and improve society for better. Also, it’s very important to have representation. We have noticed that other Athletes get inspired by us, Athletes Leaders, and get motivated to work along with us. For me this is the path for change. In the future, we will see the impact that these actions can make in sport, education, finance, politics, health, leadership, and many others important places in society.
Let me end this article with two personal anecdotes…
In 2015 I twisted my left knee during a practice for the World Games, I thought I would not make it to LA. My coach arranged me physical therapy so I could get better for the Games. He gave me all the support, inspiration and encouragement I needed. Even if I couldn’t believe that there was time to recover, he believed and made me believe in it. So, with only 2 months of treatment I was able to compete at the World Games in Los Angeles and we earned the Bronze medal in 5-a-side unified football!
There was a teacher that was very important to me when I was a little kid, I didn’t like to talk to the other kids in my classroom and I used to seat by myself. This teacher saw that I was by myself without talking or playing to my classmates and she asked me to sit next to her so I wouldn’t feel alone and to get more confident until I could socialize with the other children.
I would like to end with the question for teachers and coaches: How do you want to be remembered for the rest of your life by your athletes and students?
