A Change by Julia

A Change by Julia - October 2016 Scholarship Essay

If in some explicit way things changed and I were now all of a sudden in the teaching profession I would want to teach calculus. Calculus was always my most difficult class.
As I sat in my high school calculus class, I hated life. Not so much because of my surroundings but because I just did not understand it. I was always very intelligent when it came to math. I was always on top of my game and math was always my favorite subject because you could only have one answer. It was solid. You put two and two together to get four. The first week in class my teacher said to us " more than half of you will not be sitting in those chairs next semester." Was she wrong? No. I took on the challenge and decided to stay. The first couple of weeks passed and I was like okay this is not too bad, I am actually pretty good at this. But boy was I in the wrong. As the chapters continued to go up I started to think she was making these equations and formulas up. It was the most stressful thing a high schooler could have possibly been dealing with.
She was a fast paced teacher. Her standards were either you get it and keep up or sit in class and try to keep up. I was that student who sat there trying to figure out if we were still speaking the same language. She did offer after school tutorials. This is the good part. School ended at 3:45 p.m, tutorials started at 4 o'clock, and most days she could only stay until 4:30 p.m. Just lovely. By the time I could get to her class the room was already flooded with many other students. So there went my extra help. As much as this was killing my brain, it was killing my GPA as well. I dreaded to be in a room where I didn't understand anything. Not comprehending in a classroom is not like not knowing what to order off the menu for lunch, it's a millions times worse.
If I just had the luck to teach calculus students I would do it with patience. I understand that teachers have a certain amount of time to teach a whole lot of work. But if the students are not understanding what good does it do for not only the students but the teacher? I would find more time to help tutor the students. In my eyes the career you choose should be what you love most. If you love what you do and are good at what you do then everything goes well. I would be dedicated to teaching every student who actually took on the challenge to take a calculus course in high school because it's not mandatory. It is an option. High school mandatory math goes up to pre cal. A student who takes the extra mile is worth my time. Those are the students who will go far in life. By taking risks. Taking advantages of opportunities not everyone is given.
As stressful as my calculus class was I would never want another student to feel as if they weren't smart enough because they just did not understand. We all could a little more help. Some more than others. If I woke up randomly one day and were a calculus teacher I would make a change.