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The Forgotten Profession

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at BC chapter.

Remember back in the day when professors were called teachers?  Remember when history was the dreaded Social Studies?  Remember when Reading and English were two different classes?  Remember when doing well in school was way easier than it is now?  Those were the days…  Ask yourself this: would you ever want to return to those classrooms?  I’m assuming most of you would say no, but for me, that’s exactly where I want to spend the rest of my life.  No, I’m not crazy.  I just want to be a teacher.

I am now a junior in the Lynch School of Education, studying to become a math teacher.  I know that understanding everything there is to know about the field of mathematics will not suffice as the necessary preparation to teach middle school students algebra; there’s more to it than that.  Teaching really is an art.  Teachers have to turn back time and somehow put their minds in the minds of their students.  No, that doesn’t mean we have an excuse to act like immature high schoolers.  But we do have to figure out how to explain what a variable is and its purpose.  Seems pretty easy?  Think again.          

I walk into Pierce Middle School in Milton, Massachusetts and I see all these little kids walking in.  Thankfully, with my heels on, I am slightly taller than most of them!  I know I am right where I belong.  I walked into a sixth grade math class as they were learning how to move decimals to the right and left, and I instantly stepped into my teacher role.  All of this work as a BC student– education and math classes– has brought me to the exact place I want to be for the rest of my life.  It is a feeling like no other.  It is a feeling of accomplishment, belonging, and purpose.
           
So what exactly does it mean to be a teacher in the Lynch School?  I’ll give you a hint.
 It doesn’t only mean that we like to color and do arts and crafts.  It doesn’t just mean we like to read children’s books all day.  It doesn’t mean that we just love kids.  This list is pretty accurate, not gonna lie, but being a teacher really means we want to help kids be the best they can be.  We want to change the world, one student at a time.  It may seem like a pretty outlandish goal, but watching a kid go from a C average to an A student in the course of one school year is one of the most rewarding experiences for us.  Success has many forms.  And though the teachers of the world may not make the most money, they are training the next generation of people entering the world’s work force.  Simply put, your future is in our hands.  It is a job we are more than willing to take on.  And that is exactly what it means to be a teacher in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College.
           
As college students, we are now used to doing all of our schoolwork on our own, without much help or guidance from our professors.  It’s an adjustment to go back to an environment where the students need lots of support, repetition, and a slow-paced teaching in order to learn content.  Believe it or not, that structure and attention got all of us to where we are as successful BC students.
           
Not many people would choose to return to the place where they remember being an awkward teenager going through puberty.  But someone has to do it, right?  Dealing with teenagers all day and teaching them math is not a walk in the park.  To all my fellow students in LSOE who want to teach kids and teenagers in your future, you have one of the toughest jobs there is.  You are the reason that students love to learn and desire to learn more.  You help the Albert Einsteins, Martin Luther King Jrs, Steve Jobs, and Hilary Clintons of the world reach their full potential.  It is because of you that we are all here. 
 
Photo Sources:
http://30sleeps.com/blog/2007/12/18/how-to-stop-hoarding-books/
http://www.randyplett.com/lifestyle-photos/school-children-teacher.html

Meghan Keefe is a senior associate on the integrated marketing team at Her Campus Media. While she was a student at Boston College, she was on the HC BC team and led as a Campus Correspondent for two semesters. After graduating and working for three years in public relations, she decided it was time to rejoin the Her Campus team. In her spare time, she enjoys exploring Boston and traveling - anything that gets her outside.