Something I constantly hear when I say I want to be a high school teacher is, “Why would you want to do that? Teenagers are horrible!” Sure, teenagers definitely have their horrible points. I would know, I am one. I have a lot of reasons I want to be a teacher, but there’s one that outshines the others. I want to make a difference.
I went through my fair share of teachers during high school and I learned a lot from them, academic and nonacademic, but none of them changed my life. Don’t get me wrong, most of them were amazing teachers and had a lot to share about life and how to be an adult, but none of them made a huge impact. I struggled a lot in high school and didn’t have much support from my teachers because well, they didn’t seem to notice.
You see the teachers in movies like Erin Gruwell from Freedom Writers, and Ms. Rain from Precious. Those teachers made a real difference in their student’s lives. They saw that their students were struggling and they did something about it. No, they don’t do it for the recognition, they do it to help their students realize their full potential. That’s what I want to do too.
I work at a summer camp and a lot of the kids that come through are kids that come from troubled families or families that aren’t so well off. I watch the behavior of those kids change over the course of the week they were there. For that week, I helped make a difference for those kid. Even if my impact doesn’t last, it did for the time I was with them. That’s where this passion for wanting to make a difference in teenagers lives came from.
Teachers have the power to change the lives of their students. If I’m going to be a good teacher, I’m going to take advantage of that power. One of my future students could be the president or find the cure to cancer. If I can help or inspire a student to find their passion, or work a little harder, I’m going to do it. Sure, teenagers now seem “lazy” and “unmotivated” but a lot of us just need a little push. I want to be the one that provide that push for the kids who can’t give it to themselves. I don’t need to impact the lives of millions. One is enough.
