I feel that my first post was an introduction to what my passions are. My passion is to work with children (the youth). Becoming a teacher was just one of the many ways I figured I would be able to interact with children and teenagers and be able to work with their needs. As my first post suggests, I do not intend to use my career as the only route and method to work with our world’s future leaders.
Instead of going on more about what my passions are, I thought I might share the root of my passions. When I reflect back to my high school years, I wish I had a teacher that I could have confided in and that could have helped me figure out who I was. I was in need of direction and understanding what deciding my future entailed. Being a part of a small school of only 250 students in my graduating class, you would think that I would have been able to built many personal connections with my teachers, but it was quite the contrary. Being in a small school, I found myself more cautious of my actions and working to maintain the “know-it-all and have-it-all-together” that I put on myself. I could not imagine the idea of revealing my disorganized and confused concern for my future. Also I had the most unhelpful guidance counselor I have seen yet to date. Not to go into details of her incompetence, but she left our school my senior year in November, when it is the high season of college applications. As a senior who was graduating with almost no help and guidance and after witnessing the difference it makes when you have a good foundational education from high school, I was determined I wanted to become a teacher. Not any teacher, but one that will be effective to my students inside and outside my classroom walls. If I can help one more student that might be walking the same shoes that I was when I was in high school and help guide them to make more successful and self-desiring choices about their future, that is all I can ask for.
I think this desire to be influenced and connected with the educators around me has ultimately brought the passions I hold today to my heart. The desire to help those who are in need, whether that is financial, social, of physical, and to be an educator, mentor, and adult that is able to shine light into the confused minds of our youth today.
Well you picked the perfect career for what you want to do! I am sure that your students will benefit from your guidance.
Hi Diane,
It is interesting for me to read your writing on the topic of high school, since we went to the same school at pretty much the same time. I particularly agree that the guidance department was very lacking; when I began to work in a public school I was surprised at the large role that the counselors play in the day-to-day school operations. Regardless of the stance they sometimes take, it is refreshing to feel the work we do as teachers corroborated in their diligence and devotion to helping our students succeed. Unfortunately, this is not the case in all schools, as it wasn’t in ours. In a situation where this is the case, teachers can have such a positive influence in guiding students towards identfying and capitalizing on their strengths.
It is so interesting how our experiences shape who we are and what we are passionate about. Having a little bit of an insight into what is the root of these passions helps to complete the puzzle. If we all would strive to fix the wrongs that we have experienced or seen in the world, like you are, it would be a much better place!