Saturday, February 15, 2025
Miltonvale Area News

Bits and Pieces

Thankful for an "Unusual" Childhood: A Teacher's Perspective

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To my mind, my childhood was not what I would have considered unusual. I had the basic nuclear family with the assorted pets, family vacations, schooling opportunities, as well as friends, favorite meals, good clothing, and lots of toys. However, it is the opinion of many that my childhood really was unusual, and after much contemplation, plus working as an educator for almost a decade now, I think I understand why: I had very active and involved parents who didn’t shy away from ensuring their children received a love of learning and education. To expand on this point, my parents, namely my mother, would read to me almost every night. My family would have “Tea Time” every afternoon at 4pm where we would watch British television together and talk. We played Scrabble and other board games in the evenings, which were full of hilarity and conversation. Our favorite forms of entertainment were audiobooks, British histories, Shakespeare’s plays, poetry, mysteries, and in-depth discussions about life and morality. I garnered a strong vocabulary, not intentionally, but through the vehicles my parents utilized as their entertainment. Due to my parents’ fascination with both history and psychology, I, too, fostered a love of each. I found myself forced to dig deeper, think differently, and grow during inactive silences as much as during active discussions. My parents were not perfect but looking back I see that they worked hard to raise my sister and me to the best of their abilities, and of course, to the best of their interests. They shaped how and what I learned, but most importantly, they shaped my expectations.

Even though my parents did a wonderful job of preparing me for adulthood while encouraging my curiosity and love of learning, there were certain aspects of teaching in the modern classroom I was not ready for. On my first day of teaching, I happily skipped into my new role with so many ideas and daydreams of how things would go, but I came to earth quickly. You see, my childhood led me to believe that most children were raised in a similar fashion to me: lots of reading, questioning, forced patience, curiosity, and so on. The culture shock I experienced was so unexpected and I felt bewildered about many students and their lack of curiosity, reading, self-reflection, determination, and even behavior. My expectations were not met and my skill-set for encouraging those expectations were not useful. So, I had to learn all over again while still finding the balance between childhood lessons and the modern classroom. Not an easy task, but surprisingly, not impossible.

It’s been seven, sometimes difficult, years of being an educator. The world is different today, even from thirty years ago. But, even with the changes and the every-day difficulties, with feelings of being too odd, too outmoded, or too exhausted to do my job with a convincing smile on my face, I have learned so much. Even with all the differences of how I grew up versus how my students are growing up, I can say I am blessed to be with these kids and watch them become adults. They are smart, capable (whether they want to act on it or not) and with them around, they help me grow as a person. Yes, I do believe there are some downfalls in childrearing today but, hidden beneath the difference in generations, there is still so much potential, creativity, and humor inside all of these angry, jaded, adolescents.

Through the constantly changing world of education and the fast-paced life I live in, I have held on tightly to my childhood lessons and expectations . And thankfully, there are students who also help keep my expectations thriving and I’m thankful for that. These are the kiddos who try to get the answers, ask the questions, keep the debates going, and work to understand their surroundings. But, even with other students who haven’t quite figured things out yet, I haven’t quit; I try to give them a bit of my “unusual” childhood if I can. Everyone deserves someone to read to them, talk to them, listen to audiobooks with them, share poetry, and play Scrabble with them.