A Confession

As a teacher, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve told my students that making mistakes are  part of learning, and that errors are intrinsically linked with learning. Errors show that students are taking risks, and it is no cliché to say that you can learn a lot from your own mistakes.

The reason why I’ve chosen this topic is to confess to a ridiculously silly and yet revolting mistake I’ve made today.

Here at C.E.O., we’re preparing for a big event tomorrow, an opening cocktail for friends, partners and potential as well as already enrolled students. I had an idea to promote the event that included sending some companies a few cookies and teabags inside a box, along with a printed invitation that said something like this: “In Britain, people have tea at five; in America, every time is a good time for a cookie; and here at C.E.O. the cocktail is tomorrow, at 6p.m..” The idea was that the delicious homemade cookies we ordered would create some buzz in the offices, and the teabags would give a nice touch.

The response was really good, and I was quite pleased with myself. As I was going down the lift on my way to grab a quick snack, I realised that I had written ‘oppening’. Yes, with 2 ‘P’s. “Jesus, Mary and Joseph”, I said to my pale reflection in the mirror.

I immediately pictured myself living in a distant country with a different name, hiding from anyone I’ve ever met. Please, do pardon my exaggeration, but you must agree that this is not the best way to start a new English school.

I thought the best idea would be to ignore it, and mention it only in case someone brought it up. But then I remembered how my day started. To put it shortly, my exact words were: “Thank you for your email. I’m not too worried about the mistakes you’ve made in not delivering the products, I’m more worried about what you’re going to do about it, now that you’ve realised that there is a problem”. Man, if I had only known I’d be repeating these words in this situation.

So I thought to myself: “ignoring the mistake is not really the option that leaves me with a clear conscience”. So here I am, talking about this slip that made my guts twist a few minutes ago. And quoting myself, “I guess that confessing to my mistake is a much better way of dealing with it than hoping no-one will notice”.

I know some day I’ll probably laugh about it. But definitely today is way too soon for that.

Ps. I just hope I haven’t made any other slips while writing this post :/

Nota: algumas pessoas me perguntaram por que eu não estava escrevendo o blog em Inglês, já que a C.E.O. se propõe a ensinar a língua. Escolhi escrever em Português pensando nos meus alunos que estão no início do aprendizado. Porém, me deixei vencer pelo argumento de que posso contribuir mais um pouco no aprendizado dos alunos, em qualquer nível, se fizer os posts ‘in English’. Se você não concorda, por favor mande sua opinião.