By Kaylee Johnson
Campus News
Recently, I was going through my family filing cabinet and found folders of childhood pictures, art projects, and cards that I had long forgotten about. Mother and Father’s day crafts, Jack-o-Lantern cutouts, and every single baptism, communion, and confirmation card I received. It warmed my heart that my parents actually cared enough about my mediocre art projects to save them for two decades. I’m an education major and it made me consider my role as a future teacher, and the role of the parents of my students. When I saw those bits of crayon-scented nostalgia, they reminded me of my childhood teachers, and the impact they left on me.
Looking back, it is comical to think about the defining features of each of my elementary school teachers. The way my second grade teacher screamed at students if they said “can I go to the bathroom?” instead of “may I go to the bathroom?,” how my 5th grade Catholic school teacher would assign no homework on days the Jets won, and the way my third grade teacher taught me how to love reading by introducing me to memorable books.
What will the absorbent little minds watching me stand in front of a classroom take away from my year of teaching them? I’ve heard burned out educators claim that only so much can be done to improve the quality of a student’s life in a year. In a way, they are right. I can only control what goes on in my classroom; I can’t force parents to adequately feed and clothe their children, or be present enough to help with homework, but I can give students gifts that will last a lifetime. I can teach them the magnitude of kindness, inclusiveness, and empathy. I can introduce them to new worlds through reading and writing. And no matter where they go in life, they will have these non-perishable, eternally relevant gifts to pass on to their own children. When I worked in classrooms this past semester, I did not consider that my students’ art projects would sit in a family’s filing cabinet or basement for decades, a time capsule if you will.
The impact I make at 22 years old will not be the same impact I make at 55, as an experienced educator. My teaching career will be the most dynamic thing in my life, because each student will require different pieces of my heart and mind. I wonder if my teachers, some of whom are now veteran teachers or even retired, think of the filing cabinets full of memories and moments in time, hearts touched by their teaching. I hope my students’ works enter hundreds of filing cabinets and boxes in basements throughout my career, and when my own grown up students open those seemingly meaningless folders and assignments up someday, they will feel the impact I left on them many years prior.
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