I am headed into the teaching field because I would rather try teaching than any of
the other 27 jobs I’ve done in my life! Also, I want to be a teacher because I grew up
with a teacher, and I have many memories of adults helping me engage in the world.
They helped me find words for all that I saw, that’s why I’m drawn to teaching ELA.
My childhood teachers were patient, and very consistent. These are my earliest
examples of teachers.
I am headed into the teaching field because I believe it is the most important job in the
world, right after parenting. Even as a substitute teacher, I love how I feel in the
classroom-alive, plugged in, connected to some invisible string, connecting people and
thoughts. Another reason I want to go into teaching is this: for a gazillion years I kept
having a nagging, marching band of thoughts that rented space in my head. They
sounded like this:
Why am I NOT a teacher?
THAT’s something I would like to try.
THAT’s something I think I’d be good at.
Oh, I would talk myself out of it. I mean what sane person goes back to college after
@#? years! THAT inner talk would sound like this:
You could do it. . .
It would be hard. . .
You should try. . .
What are you crazy?
Can you get a sense of how exhausting these voices were?! I decided I would go to
any lengths to shut them up! So, here I am!
One more thing I want to say-I am not of the belief that we should educate our youth
and seek to improve the process of doing so so that we can compete with Norwegians,
Europeans, or anyone else, for that matter. Rather, I believe I want to be part of a
movement that educates our youth with tireless effort and the most sound practices
available because it turns our brains on and pumps our hearts better. If used wisely,
education like this makes us humans being rather than doing, it connects us to each
other, to the world. When we channel our brains through our emotional circuit, we can
be a force for change, or at the very least, consistent good.
