Why teach?

  


  Growing up as a young black girl, I noticed that there were not many teachers that looked like me. I had dark skin and wore my kinky hair in an afro and little "puff balls," as I called my ponytails back then. I do not necessarily think that this was damaging to my self-esteem in anyway, but I do believe that it would have been awesome to have had more teachers that looked like me and the amazing women in my family. Nonetheless, I was still influenced by amazing teachers throughout my time in the public education system that positively impacted my decision to become a teacher. 

  I am the youngest child and there is a huge age gap between my siblings and I, so it sometimes felt like I craved attention from my teachers and peers at school, that I may have lacked at home. As a future educator, I want my students to feel at home. I want them to be able to forget the things that they are going through outside of school. I want to create a space for them to express themselves freely, knowing that they won't be judged, because I did not always have that. 

  As of now, I see myself teaching fifth or sixth grade and if I had to choose a specific subject to teach, it would be language arts. I have always enjoyed reading and expressing myself through writing, so I would love to be able to encourage my littles to do the same. 

Comments

  1. Praxis Place/Julia MerittAugust 27, 2021 at 11:18 AM

    Welcome Kristian. Your 'ponytails' with that sweet little girl face are so cute. I taught in schools where exactly 1/2 of the teachers had to be black for just the reasons you describe. That was wonderful for my students to see more than mostly white women teachers. Wonderful.

    I love teaching literacy too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pogue's PlaygroundSeptember 5, 2021 at 4:03 PM

      Thank you! I love that the schools you taught at took the initiative to diversify the staff, I'm sure that it meant a lot to students.

      Delete

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