Teaching Fantasies and Realizations

When I decided that I wanted to be a teacher, I had fantasies of being a revolutionary educator. I thought I would be as tough loved as Morgan Freeman in "Lean on Me," as inspirational and smart as Edward James Olmos in "Stand and Deliver," and as warm and friendly as Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music." Now I am starting to realize that is much more than, thankfully before I started teaching. A good teacher knows their subject and tells students what they should know. A great teacher allows them to find the information by carefully guiding them and allowing them to create their own opinions. With state testing and the current emphasis on grades, it makes it hard to be a great teacher and extinguishes creativity it the classroom.



I am trying to read books on what should be taught in middle school and I keep coming across a common theme, self-empowerment. If you can remember when you were that age, not a teenager, but not a child, all these memories might come to mind. Feeling out of place in your own body, family or school and constantly worrying about what other people would think of you. A sense of dread when you would walk past a group of people and they would start to laugh, whether at you or not, and feeling awkward in previously comfortable situations. I hope I will be a great teacher by understanding what I was like at the age and providing needed support to my future students.

"Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave."
-Henry Peter Broughan