Students are people too
Everyday I educate the youth of our country. Not with only with standards and a district mandated curriculum that often times follows no sequence but with knowledge that will help them become functioning members of society. Young adults who enter the world with an understanding that not everyone is going to like them, have the same beliefs or even have the same tastes in music. My students are grasping the importance of voting, realizing how their simple individual actions can impact the masses and even coming to grips with the fact the “real world” isn’t always going to be happy. Do my students have benchmark tests? Absolutely. Do they have quizzes? On a weekly basis. However, my students also are told how to build a resume, strong interview skills and most importantly in my opinion: how to think freely. We’ve become a society of followers, close minded thinkers, individualist, and all around lazy people.
Teachers don’t get paid nearly enough for the amount of hours we put in and unfathomable situations that occur on a daily basis; but that’s okay to me. Why? Because my students will forever leave my class at the end of the year with the mindset that they can make a change, that they’re important and deserve to be successful/happy regardless of gender,race,ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. Many of my coworkers have a pessimistic outlook on the future based on our current students; but if they took the time to look past the student and got to know the person, they to would realize our future is in the hands of some great, creative, intelligent kids just waiting for their potential to be tapped into.
