Youth deserve caring, enthusiastic teachers
by Michele Whitehead, reporter

    Teaching should be challenging, rewarding

   Nothing is more important in education than having good instructors.

   No amount of new equipment or facilities can make up for a teacher who has lost the desire to actually teach.

   For the past year, I have been employed as a preschool teacher.

   When I first applied for the position, I thought it would be a good experience for someone like me who was considering a career in education.

   Although I am more likely to teach older students in the future, anything to help boost my sad little resume was fine with me.

   Call me naïve, but I had no idea what I was about to undertake.

   One thing I have discovered in the past two semesters is the importance of actually teaching children in early childhood—not just shuffling them through the system.

   I was fortunate enough to have had parents who were very supportive of my education from the very beginning. They made sure I never just “got by.”

   I was able to write my name and say my entire alphabet before I ever walked into a classroom.

   My mother and I worked on multiplication tables while she fixed my hair in the morning, and my father drilled me on spelling words after dinner at night.

   What happens to the children who don’t have that support at home? Are children without parental support doomed to failure in our school systems?

   Failure does not have to be the only result.

   Although having parental support and encouragement was very important, it would not have meant as much without the teachers I had.

   I was very capable of being a good student, but without teachers going out of their way to really teach, to find ways to be creative and interesting, it all would have been just a long series of work sheets.

   I have never had a more challenging job in my entire life. Every single day I am amazed with each child’s ability to grasp things so quickly.

   A few months ago, I watched First Lady Laura Bush address a Senate committee on the importance of educating America’s children beginning in their early childhood years.

   She spoke primarily about children 3 to 5 years old, saying those years are critical in determining their future educational success all the way through college.

   That makes what they learn from me more important than I ever imagined.

   There is no doubt how important early years in education are for students. That hypothesis is even found in psychology in human development theories by men such as Erikson and Piaget.

   What those theorists failed to mention is how difficult it is to be the primary influence during those years.

   It is extremely hard for me to be patient when I think a student must not be able to hear properly because he is definitely not listening to me. It’s hard to be encouraging on those days, which we all have, when I would rather have stayed in bed.

   I also know that teaching is the most rewarding job I have ever had.

   When I see a child who has really been struggling finally write his name for the first time, or when I get bombarded by smiling 4-year-olds trying to give me the first hug of the day, I am reminded of why I ever wanted to teach in the first place.

   Although most high school and college students aren’t generally inclined to run and hug all of their instructors, teachers at every level can, and more importantly should, make that kind of impact on their students’ lives.

   Teaching is not for everyone.

   Working with students on a day-to-day basis should be a challenging and rewarding experience for any teacher—no matter how many weeks, months or years the person has been teaching.

   For those who have lost that spirit, perhaps it is time for a career change.