Message from an Elementary Education Major

This week, I’ve decided to talk about an article I found online written by an Elementary Education major. This initially interested me because I was debating about becoming an Education major coming into Michigan State. Instead, I ended up as a Psychology major. I decided against becoming an Education major because the field is having a lot of difficulties right now, especially in the job search right out of college. However, this article shined a new light on elementary education that I’ve never seen before.

The author makes it clear right off the bat that she is teaching for her love of helping people, not just controlling a classroom of students. This was probably one of my greatest takeaways because not only is she disproving all the misconceptions about teachers controlling classrooms, but she emphasizes how much teachers just want to help. Teachers aren’t there to babysit, they’re there to help, teach, and care.

Another key point of this article is when the author states: “I simply want more people to be aware of the fact that a child’s potential should not have to be determined by his or her race, ethnicity, parent’s income or level of education, special needs, etc.”. This sentence speaks volumes on all counts. No matter where the child comes from; whether it’s  his or her racial, ethnic or economic background, every child is entitled to the same education, and that is what this teacher is trying to accomplish. The author expands on this subject by explaining that there is no intelligence gap between white and black children at birth. What happens is that societal beliefs come into play when these children are at a young age and make them believe that they are destined to fail. Teachers should never teach based on a societal stereotype and if they do, then their students are bound to perform poorly because they have little expected from them. No child should live or learn by lower expectations because they only end up living up to a lower standard, a case that thousands of children fall victim to every year.

This article touched on some of the topics of an Education major that I was initially worried about and ended up making me a little jealous of the author's decision to stick with this major. Who knows, I’m only a freshman I still could change majors!

Sources:

Johnson, Maren. "Teachers Are Changing The World." Odyssey. Rollins College, 14 Sept. 2015. Web. 02 Oct. 2016.

Http://englishbookgeorgia.com/blogebg/author/ebgblog_autho/. "Three Steps to Positive Classroom Leadership." Blog EBG. N.p., 21 Apr. 2015. Web. 02 Oct. 2016.

-Jenna