Why I Want to Be a High School Teacher
By: Esther Kane
If you told a seven-year-old me that after all these years I still want to be a teacher, I would’ve nodded and said, “Yup, sounds about right!” The initial reason to become an educator was simple enough: having winter, spring, and summer vacations forever? Sign me up! My middle and high school experiences added more reasons to teach. Some teachers helped me find my passions in history and politics while others made me cry due to the harshness of their words. The amazing teachers I had inspired me to follow in their footsteps while the not-so-amazing ones… well, they certainly fueled my desire to become a better teacher! Watching my educators help their students grow and thrive, I knew I wanted to be just like them. I wanted to help the next generation fall in love with learning, especially with history. History has always been my favorite topic because I enjoyed hearing about the past and seeing how it relates to the present. However, so many of my friends complained about how history was so boring and useless. I knew I wanted to teach history to dissipate those stereotypes. Also, knowing how important my teachers were influencing me to aim high for college, I wanted to become a high school teacher to guide students to their paths of higher education and work.
However, as an Asian American, becoming a teacher was definitely not my parents’ preferred occupation for me. I'll never forget hearing that my grandma cried tears of sorrow when she learned I wanted to become a history teacher. In my college essays, my parents advised me to avoid writing about my aspirations to become a teacher — they believe that such a profession would not impress universities (despite the fact that universities are filled with teachers!). Despite the protests, I knew teachers were just as valuable as any lawyer and insisted on following my aspirations. To make sure that teaching was truly what I wanted, I started helping out in classrooms and taking education courses at my university. From there, my passion for education grew.
I sought opportunities in college to learn more about education. To augment my understanding of how to become a better teacher, I continued to take education courses and did research on how to improve educational equity. I helped out in all sorts of classrooms, tutoring students online, and even became a teaching fellow for the Breakthrough Collaborative, which all solidified my desire to teach. These experiences have taught me about the injustices of the school system and how it fails both students and teachers. I want to take a part in stand for educational equity, whether it’s taking part to stop the cycle of racial bias in the classroom or teaching an anti-racist curriculum.
I absolutely love the students I have had the honor to teach. From helping out in the classroom to tutoring my own students, they all are so sweet, intelligent, and eager to learn. However, not all teachers think the same way and I have occasionally witnessed educators criticize their students for problems out of their control. For example, I helped a teacher who claimed their students did not have critical thinking while completely ignoring the fact that many of the students were ESL learners. This behavior has fueled the fire in my heart to become a teacher who never looks down on her students and who does her best to make sure they excel no matter the circumstances. I also understand that teaching is more than just passing down the knowledge of a subject, it is about getting students to become curious about the world and to find their own goals in life with the education provided for them. With all these experiences under my belt, I will be applying to teaching credential programs and I am so excited to see what lies in store!