This assignment is very challenging for me. I don’t have an inspiring story where I explain how a teacher enlightened me as a child and from that day forward I knew I wanted to be a teacher. I cannot say that relate to people who say this because this was not my experience. Don’t get me wrong, I have great memories of being a student and can remember specific things that my teachers exposed me to. I have always being around children and truly feel that they are the most beautiful thing that surrounds us. But I also didn’t begin my long to becoming a teacher with the kids are my driving force. When I, at 25, decided to go back to school I did it in order to get out of a dead end job that was killing my body and I couldn’t imagine doing until I had to retire. My driving force was getting out of the restaurant business. Having said this I did at some point develop a reason for becoming a teacher. I believed that I could make a difference with children from Spanish speaking households. I never imagined that I would be teaching at an immersion school. So when I got a job at an immersion school I had an internal battle over what I thought I went to school for and the reality of the job market.
I have since matured and don’t see my job as a means to an end. But I am not done with this task of thinking about why I became a teacher. I plan to use this class to assist me in the endeavor to come up with the true reason why I became a teacher.
I believe that traditionally we have been using education as a means to socialize. Education prepares us for the workforce. Whether you chose to go to college or simple get a job we are still the workforce. There have been movements that aspire to change this purpose but ultimately the inevitable happens. We go to school so that we can get the job we want and live better lives. My 21 yr. old neice put it so well. She told me that she didn’t want to go to school because she was tired of school. She sees school as an obstacle to enjoying life. She says that she didn’t enjoy her life when she was in school. Now that she works only she is having a lot more fun. She said she didn’t just want to do school until she got a job to then work her whole life only to retire and die. She put it so well.