For a while now, I haven't been motivated for school. I don't care if I'm late to class, or show up at all for that matter. I barely try on my homework anymore, and only do the bare minimum of effort just so I can pass with a decent grade. I didn't use to be like this. I actually used to be a huge over-achiever. Why did this change? Well, I'll tell you. And no, the answer is not your typical teenage procrastination.
It's the god damn teachers.
I don't mean to bag on teachers. I mean hell, I'm attending college right now for my Elementary Education major. But they're the ones who ruined school for me. Last year I went to a community college just because I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do and to get general classes out of the way, and the experience was awful. They just didn't care. They cared about you as a person, sure, but not the work and effort you put into their classes.
There was one experience that just blew it for me. In my psychology class, I decided to make my final a scrapbook/diary about myself as if I was someone with a mental disability. I spent countless hours not only crafting the book, but also put a lot of time and thought into my storytelling. I remember staying up until 4:00 AM on countless nights finishing up that book along with balancing my other classes. When I went to present it, my fellow classmates praised me for how much effort went into my book and I started to feel like all my hard work paid off... Until my book was handed to the teacher. She no more looked at the first 5 pages, handed it back to me, and gave me an A. Sure, I was happy about passing, but I didn't feel like I deserved it. I could have filled that book with complete garbage. I spend countless hours on a project for your class and you can't even spend five minutes looking through it?
After that, I was so done. I didn't even try anymore. But the teachers didn't seem to notice. I handed in a sociology assignment a month after it was due, still got an A. I turned in my English final after graduation, still got an A. I only attended class maybe 30% of the time, and still my grade never faltered. And the work was so easy; I had the constant feeling of "why am I even doing this?" Even though the school year ended for me in mid-May, I tell people I haven't used my brain since about February. And now it's September.
Now to put this on a global scale: These are our children, people! These are our future leaders, doctors, inventors, creators, etc.! They need to learn! How do you expect our children to grow and become these things if you aren't giving them the time of day? If you aren't challenging them? I see so many posts online about how our school system is messed up, and I never believed it until this happened to me. Yet no one seems to do anything about it.
This is why I want to be a teacher. I want to be the exact opposite of my experience. I want my students to be engaged, learn, and dream about being those future leaders, doctors, inventors, and creators. I want them to grow up and remember me as a teacher that cared, taught them something valuable, and challenged them. Because thats exactly what our children need.
