Earlier this week, I was told to think about how education has changed my life and, specifically, to express it in two to three sentences. But how do you express something like that in one two sentences? How do you take something that has grown into your career, your passion, the thing you will spend the rest of your life thinking about, and explain how it has changed you in just two sentences?
Well, I really can’t. I don’t even want to try. But, in the sixteen years between kindergarten to senior year of college, there have been so many stepping stones and levels to my education that have, as a whole, led me to the exact place I am today. As you could imagine, it all started with the teachers.
In third grade, Mrs. Carver was the first big influence. She taught me that it was okay to want to write and read and to do it every day, during every free moment in my life. She let me keep my book at my desk and read when I was done with the day’s work and gave me the first positive feedback I ever remember getting on my writing. She made me feel good about the things I was good at and started me on a path through a future where these very same things become the foundation for the rest of my life.
However, when it comes to teachers, my junior year of high school was probably the most influential. I had lots of really incredible teachers- not to mention one super awesome advisor. This was the second year that I had Mr. Crouse for math, my least favorite subject taught by one of my favorite teachers, and the only academic class I have ever taken. Beyond all of the algebra, calculus, and trigonometry I learned in his class, he also taught me that teachers can be themselves while still doing what they love and that it can be both possible and easy to find fun in the things that many do not believe to be so, like quadratic functions and sine and cosine. He was and still is, so down to earth, easy to talk to, and willing and able to help whenever you need it.
And then, there was AP Language, the last class I really needed before I was sure that I wanted to be an English teacher, that taught me how to encompass my whole self in my writing, say exactly what I meant to say instead of skirting around the topic. Even now, six years later, it was the birthplace of one of my favorite essays that I have ever composed, a synthesis of argument and narrative. It pushed me to my limits and stretched them to new heights, which plunged me into the journey that has made me the writer I am today – all because of Mr. Repko. He was the “Oh, Captain, my captain” to my career as a writer, the spark that started the flame that brought me to where I am today. Without his weirdly whispered, incredibly meaningful daily discussions, I’m not sure that I would have found myself on the path on which I currently sit.
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“‘Women and Violence in Contemporary World Texts’… that sounds like fun, right?” What an odd question, right? But it was a question that ended up changing my life, asked while taking a look at the classes being offered for the semester. And, while it may not have been ‘fun,’ it was definitely eye-opening. We talked about texts not normally seen in an academic setting: Gone Girl, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and even the comic books series Bitch Planet. We talked about minorities, violence done both to and by women, the treatment of women in other countries: the things that many people shy away from teaching, Dr. Clemens embraced as her focus. And, beyond that, she taught us not to shy away from the things that we want to embrace as the focuses of our academic career. For me, this was adolescent literature, texts written for young adults but that simultaneously meant so much more, like Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy.
But, beyond that, Dr. Clemens taught me not only what a feminist is, but that I am one, fully and totally, plus how to take this knowledge and use it to better myself, and to better the world. Without her, I never would have declared a minor in women and gender studies would never have focused my independent study on gender theory in the classroom, and probably wouldn’t have gone to the Women’s March on Washington the day after 45’s Inauguration. Because of her, I have become a better academic, a better learner, a better intersectional feminist, and an allover better person.
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Professor Jonathan Shaw has been the most recent influence on my educational career, with the first class I took with him having been a year ago. But with that being said, he has influenced my education and my love of learning in more ways than I may even be able to express in words. Literary theory was an extremely tasking and difficult class, one of those times that I would read the words on the paper but not understand what they were saying – but it would happen to me every night. For some odd reason, I still looked forward to the class every week, saw the good in the time spent in the classroom with him and the handful of other English majors in that class, although I really could not figure out why – until I visited him for office hours, and figured it all out. He was so human, found fun and excitement in things that weren’t strictly academic, and he wasn’t afraid to show it. His office, like his life, is plastered with pictures of Bob Dylan, Alan Ginsburg, and Johnny Ramone. Yet, he is still so academic in his speech, even in the way that he speaks outside of the classroom. Which is exactly the reason that I decided to spend my American Literature credit not in a class within my gender studies minor, but in “American Poetry in the Long 1960’s,” taught by Prof Shaw. And this class changed me. Unlike the other classes, where you read strictly academic texts and talked about academic things, we read Sylvia Plath, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Bob Dylan. Yes, Bob Dylan, songwriter, activist, and pottymouth. And because of the topics discussed in this class, something big changed the way I viewed academics: I learned I could write academically about the things I cared about, a realization that has led me to papers about Marvel characters (specifically Jessica Jones), Sylvia Plath’s anger, and connecting a Brooks poem to the television show “Good Times.” Just as Bob Dylan made Bruce Springsteen realize he could write about the everyday life of a New Jersey boy, Prof Shaw made me realize that I could write about the things I cared about, and do it for a grade and recognition in the academic community.
Ask any teacher why they have chosen to become a teacher, and they will most likely give you at least one influential teacher in their past, if not a whole list of them. Teachers become teachers because of people in their past who have led them to a love of learning, of teaching, of a subject that they are passionate about. I am no exception to this.
So, how has education changed me? For me, the better question is, how hasn’t education changed me? I cannot think of a single aspect of my life that has not been positively influenced by a teacher, and they have been the greatest helping hands in making me every drop of who I am today.