Learning to laugh at yourself – An interview with Mrs Young

Last week, we had the opportunity to talk to the vibrant Mrs Young. An excellent biology teacher who loves educating, is a strong believer that you are more than your mark, and an overall enthusiast in life. She shared some very interesting stories. Read on for tales of witty test answers and insane stories from childhood.

The last two years of her school career were stressful. In order to help reduce her workload, Mrs Young decided to stop horseriding, giving up working with her favourite animals. Her horse, a young thoroughbred, needed to be ridden 5 times a week, which became too much in combination with school stress and workload.

We inquired more about her school life. She told us how teachers would comment that she was, “Great student but really talks a lot in class”. This ties in perfectly with her belief that everyone should use what little time they have not being unnecessarily serious, that it is important to “Laugh at yourself — don’t take yourself too seriously.”

She went on to stress, how despite doing well in her Matric years, she pushed herself too hard. This is when she commented, “Your self esteem isn’t linked to marks.” As a self-proclaimed overachiever, this was vital for her to realise. To add to this sentiment, she shared another powerful piece of advice, “No matter what you do or don’t do, you are worthy.” 

Continuing on the topic of school, Mrs Young uncovered an incredibly disturbing story from the archives of her school experience. When talking about her winter school uniform, she told us about a time when one of her friends had a ladder in her stocking. This invoked an absurd comment from one of her teachers, who called this uniform malfunction the “stairway to heaven”. This went unreported, with absolute contrast to now. Mrs Young, someone who has formerly been involved in PSHE, hopes that she has created a space where students would feel safe to talk to her about any unsettling comments and encounters.

She told us about her love for educating, “My life’s work”, educating is something very important to her, and stressed that she wouldn’t trade it for anything… Maybe working with horses. Though part of the reason she loves educating so much has to do with working with young people.

 We also wanted to know one of the funniest student encounters she’s had, and in her time teaching, being a biology teacher, sex-ed has brought many awkward but humorous comments, most that “we cannot share…” Though one moment, one that we can air, comes from an answer that a student wrote in a test. In a time of struggle, confusion, mixed with a bit of not caring, the student wrote : ‘Go look in the textbook.’ “I laughed so much.”

Fun fact no one would guess:

“I love it when people surprise me.”

Season that describes her best:

We settled on the rather specific ‘transition from spring to summer’ as it neatly represents her fresh, optimistic and adventurous traits.

If R20 million appeared today:

She would first and foremost pay off her family’s debt. The rest of the money would go to charities, somewhere where they should be able to be actively involved. In the past she has helped to build homes through Habitat for Humanity in KZN

Favourite book/movie:

“The Forty Rules of Love” a Sufi book that she has read 3-4 times. She describes it as full of powerful learnings on unconditional love. She definitely prefers reading, though also describes herself as, ‘a little bit of a purist, I’ll read the book first, then maybe the movie.’ We also wanted to know if she’d be interested in writing a book of her own, to which Mrs Young mused, “ I think there is a book in here somewhere.” 

We had an excellent time finding out more about Mrs Young and just exactly why she is loved by students and staff. A teacher who hopes to give her learners a space to feel safe and tap into their self-worth, but also a person who hopes to spend what time we have, “being light and having fun.”

– Rachel, Angelina