There’s A Whole World Out There
Teachers reach beyond their subject and provide valuable life lessons
I never thought that as a freshman I would have teachers that I genuinely connected with, that helped me rise educationally and personally. So as a second year high school student, students: cherish your teachers. Teachers, cherish your students.
September 24, 2019
Like many students, I walked into my U.S. history class, taught by Mr. Cole, preparing myself for a year of boring old history. I mean don’t get me wrong, I love history, but the way it’s taught sometimes can be rough.
As teachers do on the first day of school, he did his “get to know me spiel” and told us some pretty interesting things that stuck with me. He started out talking a little bit about how his parents had a huge impact on him, because they both pushed him to pursue his curiosities and to never stop learning.
I think what really stuck with me though was the fact that he said as a teacher he is here to teach students real-life applications, and unfortunately, he has to do it in the form of history.
Let that sink in for a second.
Students, have you ever thought that maybe that’s the reason why your teachers may have high expectations for you, or even get up in front of the class in the first place?
Teachers, is that the reason why you do what you do, to make a true connection to your students, instead of just throwing knowledge at their brains?
Maybe think back to your 4 or 5 year old self walking into a grocery store and seeing your kindergarten teacher and gasping, so appalled that you would see them outside of school grounds? It completely blew your mind that they had a life outside of school, right?
That reaction partly was because you had such a connection to your teacher as a kid.
Although the huge contribution to that reaction obviously has a lot to do with your child-like brain, but don’t you think students may even still think like this, even into our teenage years?
Obviously, as teenagers, we know that teachers don’t live inside the walls of their classroom.
Yet I’m pretty sure that I can speak for educators in general that they don’t eat, sleep and breathe the subject that they teach every single day (nor do they sleep stuffed in their storage room). They have their own life, their own struggles and their own set of passions that they want to pursue just like you.
But it’s not anything to blame on the students nor the teachers. Maybe we need to take one step back for a minute.
Personally, I kind of enjoy when teachers get off topic and tell you stories and we get to see a deeper part of their personality and their life that they forget for eight hours every day.
I never thought that as a freshman I would have teachers that I genuinely connected with, that helped me rise educationally and personally. So as a second year high school student, students: cherish your teachers. Teachers, cherish your students.
Because students need to be shown that although school takes up so much of our lives, there is still a whole gigantic world out there. We need your help to be able to navigate it.
