OCHO RIOS, St Ann — Most of the time she can’t put a name to the face of the person thanking her, but Patrice Campbell Small loves the praise. It makes her know she made the right choice, 20 years ago, to be a teacher. She was still a teenager herself then, only 19 years old.

“My greatest achievement is when I see children, sometimes years after, and they are like, ‘Miss, remember you used to teach me and you made a great impact on my life’. I feel good because I see that they are making something good of their lives,” said Campbell Small.

“I’ve gone to the bank and I hear somebody say, ‘Miss, come up in the line’. And when I go they tell me that I used to teach them; but I don’t remember the faces. So in moments like those I feel a sense of accomplishment that I did something right,” she added.

The St Hilda’s Diocesan High School graduate almost missed her calling; she had originally planned to be an accountant. Eyes firmly fixed on that goal, she did “all the business subjects you could think of in high school”. Then her father suggested that she should consider teaching. He thought she would be good at it.

Obediently, she began applying to teachers’ colleges.

She was accepted by Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College in Montego Bay where she spent three years doing a degree in secondary education with a major in language arts and social studies.

“I went in, saw what the teaching field was like and I said, ‘This is something that I could do and really enjoy’,” recalled Campbell Small.

Several months later she landed her first job at Bamboo Primary, and she’s been employed to the school ever since.

“When I came to Bamboo I got a grade six class with only boys, some of whom had behavioural challenges, and man, I started to experience the real teaching world. I had nightmares, I kept dreaming that I was in the class and the boys were giving me a rough time,” Campbell Small said, able to laugh now that two decades have passed.

“Even though they taught us in college how to manage in situations where children have behaviour issues, in the real world it’s something completely different,” she added.

Undaunted, she accepted the challenge, determined to make the best of every moment.

“I learnt how to handle them and I loved my job more,” she said.

Today’s children, she conceded, are a bit more difficult to handle and it can take a toll.

“There are days when you’re gonna feel off. The behaviour of the children has changed; it is even worse now because there was a time when children were more [well behaved],” she told the Jamaica Observer.

“But I always give of my best because all of my children are special to me, and each day I look forward to the stories they have to tell me. They make me laugh,” she added.

The 39-year-old is especially thrilled when her students — especially those who struggled in the past — have successfully grasped the material being taught.

“When I see them learning and progressing it is a great feeling. I always tell my children that once they have the right attitude it is a win. I use the Ben Carson story to motivate them all the time,” said Campbell Small.

The hardworking teacher now has some well-deserved relaxation planned. In celebration of today’s observation of Teachers’ Day, she will join some of her colleagues for a day at Holiday Heaven resort in Runaway Bay, St Ann.

It’s a getaway she believes is well-deserved.