Teaching a Beautiful Part of Life by Kache

Teaching a Beautiful Part of Life by Kache - October 2016 Scholarship Essay

One of my worst and best classroom experiences will always be in my sophomore English class. The year started off quite fuzzy and disorganized due to our teacher unexpectedly getting into an accident. Though we were concerned for her health, my classmates and I were also greatly concerned for our future. The tenth grade English regents were coming up at the end of the year and without a teacher, we were doomed to fail. For the next couple of months, my school scrambled to find a replacement for our previous teacher, for whom we had only known for three days. It was substitute, after substitute, an endless cycle of false hope and fear of failing the end of the year test. Then our savior came in Ms. Chrysafi. She was the last teacher to come to us, and the one who eventually stayed. We had brushed her off in the beginning, believing that she would soon leave like all the others had, leaving us in the dust to repeat this class next year. But, she didn't. She stayed, and she truly was an amazing teacher. I admit that because to do what she did - squeeze an entire year's worth of curriculum and reading into seven months is no easy feat. She did it anytime and when June tests came, Ms. Chrysafi's sophomore class received a hundred percent passing rate.

As a senior, I look back on the moments that got me to where I am as a student now, and my sophomore English class is one of them. I was always a good student, with English being my best and favorite subject. I enjoyed reading and writing for it relaxed and helped me to express myself. Deep down, I always imagined that this was how it was for every person. But as you grow older, the more realizations you make. Not everyone held a passion for literature as I did. So if they roles were reversed I would become an English teacher. I would like to share my love and passion for reading and writing and also show the overall importance of it was a subject and a life skill.

Many students may dismiss English as a class, seeing it only as a place where you are forced to read old books and write in a systematic manner. Though these aspects of an English class may seem boring and non-essential, they are not to be taken lightly. Those old books, are definitely old, but they are manuscripts filled with wisdom and lessons that not many people can learn on their own; lessons that must be taught through words and metaphors. When you truly understand why something must be read, interest latches on to you quite quickly. Then, when you are done, you take what you read and interpret it for yourself and make those lessons into something that can directly relate to you.

After that, you write about it. How it made you feel? Why did you feel that way? There will be some students that no matter how hard they try they won't feel much. They'll say they were simply uninterested, and my job will be to teach them that that is also a feeling. Expression is best felt when written down. Anyone can draw or see a painting. Anyone can make or hear music. But it takes real effort to put personal energy into words that can be understood and felt by others. The ability to write is a great on and should not be wasted.

My job as a teacher would be to show them these things and not make what they learn in a classroom is not meant to be kept in classroom, but to be spread, shared and used in the outside world. As a teacher that is what I am supposed to prepare my students for, the world outside the barred school windows. In the world, there will always be something new to learn. I would choose to be an English teacher, because in this world there will always be something to read and you will always be asked to write. So instead of seeing it as something mundane, let us view it for what it was potentially meant to be... a beautiful part of life.