My day job is teaching elementary school. Which you probably already know, but I thought I would say it again. Before I became a teacher, I took a few meandering years in between high school and college to find out what I wanted to do as a career, where I wanted my life to go, and all that good stuff. It took a handful of years before I realized I wanted to be a teacher bad enough I was willing to back to school for it.
Part of the reason I became a teacher is stories. I read and watched stories which inspired me to teach. I wanted to share those stories with you today, along with why they inspired me. If I can even put it into words myself.
First, is ‘Up the Down Staircase’ by Bel Kaufman. In full honesty, I didn’t read this book. I watched it. Our local high school drama class put it on as a play, and I went because some of my friends were acting in it. Something about the story of a young English teacher drew me in and held me tight. The story is full of the ups and downs of her year as a teacher in a little bit of a rough school. She teaches English to students who don’t care, or pretend they don’t care, or pretend they do care, or perhaps do care. Some of the students love her, some dislike her, some challenge her. In the end she is able to make an impact in their lives for the better. Watching that story on stage inspired me to make my own impact on students lives, could I change a students life for the better? Could I teach them to think, and to love learning? I wanted to find out.
Second, is ‘The Book Whisperer’ by Donalyn Miller. This is not a fiction story, rather, it is the real story of a teacher who instills a love of reading within her students. In the book she shares her journey as an English teacher, and how she developed her philosophy of teaching. This book turned my lofty dreams into a reality. Here was a real person, in a real school, with real students, doing what I had been dreaming of. After reading the book, my dream became a solid thing I could hold onto. I don’t remember how much time passed between the first and second story, what I remember is how one built upon the other, and how both worked together to instill in me a longing to teach. I didn’t know if I could do it, I didn’t know if I would be good at it, but I wanted to try.
It is because of those stories that I went back to college and became a teacher. College isn’t easy, but it is easier when you know exactly what you want, and what you are going to do with your degree. The inspiration I gained from those books buoyed me up throughout it all, and now I am a teacher, doing what I dreamed of for all of those years. Imperfectly, but still doing it.
Stories can and do change lives every day.
Shaina Merrick
The Beauty of a Story 