We don’t just teach children, we teach souls
Valentina Vali Costea
Mrs. Valentina Vali Costea has been a teacher since 2007, right after graduating from the Faculty of Philosophy in Iași. She teaches social and human sciences (mainly logic, psychology, and entrepreneurial education) at the National College of Agriculture and Economy in Tecuci, Galați County.
The college has a technological profile, is ranked among the top three high schools in the city, and serves a community of nearly 1,000 students. Most of them come from rural areas, and they are increasingly drawn to the college because, as she explains, “the atmosphere here has changed a lot — we’ve improved our technological resources, joined Erasmus programs, carried out many projects, and this gives us a very good reputation among young people.”
My students have been my main source of inspiration, and all of this has helped me grow and improve – perhaps even more than the exams I took to obtain all my teaching degrees.
According to the school’s statistics, many of the students come from families facing financial and social difficulties.
“Most of our students commute, and these children should be appreciated not only for their effort to learn, but also for the effort they put in every day to travel back and forth, no matter the conditions.” The college, which has a greenhouse and an orchard, also seeks to encourage young people and offer them learning opportunities connected to real life:
“We invest a lot in developing the agricultural side, and we’re even about to purchase an agricultural simulator. Our students want to go into agriculture, but they are drawn to its more technological side. The projects we run in school make this field more attractive: they visit farms, they meet entrepreneurs working in agriculture, so they can see exactly what happens in reality.
Alongside the simulator that will show them how to work the land with a tractor, we also want to modernize the greenhouse and orchard. The products we obtain there are sold, and this makes us appreciated in our local community. With the funds we raise, we aim, for example, to equip classrooms with interactive boards. This way, we can teach entrepreneurship in a practical way, using our own high school as a model.”
But how did Mrs. Costea come to teach entrepreneurship? “For a long time, I wanted to attend the Land Forces Academy in Sibiu and become an officer, but I enrolled instead at the Faculty of Philosophy in Iași. When I graduated, I decided to go into teaching and realized this was the only option — I couldn’t see myself anywhere else. Life brought me to the children.”
Since those first years, Mrs. Costea has worked very hard — and continues to do so — gaining valuable experience. “It’s a challenging professional environment; you constantly have to prove to students, parents, and colleagues that you belong at the front of the classroom and that you have something meaningful to teach the children. Year after year, I tried to become better, because I felt that through my students I could adapt my lessons, make them more engaging, more enjoyable. My students have been my main source of inspiration, and all of this has helped me grow and improve — perhaps even more than the exams I took to obtain all my teaching degrees.”
She has sought to connect with her students not only as a teacher but also as a person, and through the subjects she teaches. In psychology, for instance, she adapted lessons to the emotional needs of young people, creating various exercises and activities that allowed them to express the issues they were facing — and at some point, things began to flow naturally. A lesson, she believes, becomes a successful one when students stand by their teacher, complementing them, and it turns into a collaboration rather than just participation.
“I’ve always tried to observe my students, to see what they need, and my fulfillment doesn’t come from the grades I give, but from the fact that I can help, that I can contribute to shaping their character and changing attitudes. We don’t just teach children, we teach souls. They are hungry to be loved, accepted, appreciated — and we, as teachers, should also have the ability to nourish these emotional needs.”
The daily challenge, as Mrs. Costea sees it, is to truly bring the student into your class — not just physically, but also intellectually and emotionally. It’s about making them participate actively, meeting their need for knowledge, and making every lesson a better one for them. The real challenge, she believes, comes from shaping students, not just informing them.
Mrs. Costea considers that working with students is constantly changing — you always need to adapt. Today, teachers face students with very high digital needs. In this context, the teacher’s role is to guide the student, to be there when they need you, to instill values, and to stand by young people.
In our imagination exercise, where resources would be unlimited, she told us she would first invest in children, because that is the best investment. She would send them on trips, camps, and exchanges, cover their urgent financial needs where necessary, and only afterward turn her attention to improving the school’s facilities.
And if she were to offer advice to those considering a teaching career, it would be to choose with their heart, while also thinking about the added value they can bring to the profession they embrace — because in this field, “the formula for success is: Education = formation + information.”
This article was written by Mădălina Lescai, Institutional Partnerships Coordinator in the Own Your Path program, as part of the Storybook Teachers project, a series of 20 articles about the Partner Teachers of the program.