Looking back on all of my years in elementary, middle, and high school I never once had that "talk" of why we all go to school. I went to a school in a suburban community. Every house looked the same, all of the students looked the same, and there was ONE African American teacher in my entire academic life. I have never once heard such a conversation until I went to my assigned school from this class, this year. One morning I arrived at my school early, and I was able to hear the morning announcements. The principal asked the children, "Why did we all come to school today children?" and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE STUDENTS responded with, "to go to college!" It was said not only in this reading to arouse children's curiosity on learning, but it is also important to show that you trust a students intelligence and that they indeed are good enough.
My schooling was quite different, I always did well in each of my classes and was never a student that received low grades. But like others, getting out of bed to go to school for six hours a day was the most dreadful thing I had to do, and it still is. I was taught to dread school because I have had so many teachers that made me do so. Elementary school was different, I could tell you each and every one of my teachers names in Hope Highlands Elementary School and something great I did in their classroom. The first year of middle school was fine too. But as I neared closer and closer to high school, it was the longest four years of my life. Every day, they same dreadful homeroom, with the same students. Don't get me wrong, I did have some amazing times in my high school years, but it was no longer "fun". A lot of teachers did not believe in students and it seemed almost impossible to graduate. But something changed that made my last year in high school amazing.
The first day of my senior year aka "the best year of my life" we were introduced to our new principal. He was the most caring, intelligent, and spirited principal I had ever met. I had his wife as a teacher, whom I loved as well. He taught us to love our school again, love our classmates, and love the education we were getting. He brought us together, and almost all of us walked the stage at graduation.
Even the teachers were motivated to teach us and make the school day fun, knowing he was going to walk into each and every classroom every day and talk to us and even get in on the lessons. My high school faced a lot of adversity over the years and he brought the entire school back to life. It is principals and educators like him that change the schooling system for the better, the only bad part was that I was only able to have him as a principal for one year. He made us want to be better, do better, and achieve better. Like he said, "Falcons fly together!"
No comments:
Post a Comment