I have talked about my passion for education in previous articles, but this week I had a reminder of why I picked the field of education as my career. A few weeks ago I published an article about how I am blessed by the students that I able to work with (https://www.hercampus.com/school/kutztown/blessings-are-disguised ); this week I experienced the harsh reality that not all educators feel this way.
I want to be a secondary Educator, which means middle, or high school. Everyone’s first reaction is why would you want to deal with all that attitude and puberty; well because I hope I can impact at least one of these young adults’ lives and help them grow and become an adult. I observed a seventh grade classroom (13 year olds are full of piss and vinegar), and I understand that it is not everyone’s cup of tea, but for the teacher to tell me she has given up on her students, I was blow away (incredibly shook). I have not experienced this lack of compassion within an educator that I was observing before; it is almost as if she said to me, stop while you are ahead because you are going to get tired of this. She then goes on to say that it is her students fault, that if they do not want to work then they will receive a bad grade, which I agree with, but if you are not going to put forth the effort as an educator to communicate with your students, build a rapport, or help them stay on task; why should they care if you don’t? These students are thirteen years old, in an art room, they need to be reminded to stay on task and given help because they should be learning how to improve their art skills not just getting projects done for their grade. The teacher should be engaging with students as they work, asking them questions and giving them tips, not just sitting at their desk. I have no clue how teachers like this can sleep at night, you did nothing to help the students, just gave them supplies and then told them to work. Even some of the students said that art was their favorite, and I asked why, they said because they can talk about anything and do anything as long as it looks like they are getting stuff done; which even then the teacher said nothing when a group of students started to play a board game instead of working on their projects.
This experience was terrible and put me in a horrendous mood, but after I calmed down, I realized that this was nothing but another blessing in disguise. This was motivation to continue on with my education and be the exact opposite of this teacher. Students need teachers that are compassionate, and hopefully I can be what they need; because they definitely do not deserve what they are experiencing.