A Changing World

A Changing World by Sarah Baker

“Why would you want to be a teacher? There’s no respect anymore and you do not get paid enough for what you do?” These are the unfailing responses that I receive when I tell someone I am attending college to become a teacher. It always seems to be the same response wherever I go. These responses are not only negative but also empty and yet seem to be the attitudes of many people. I believe that teaching is one of the noblest careers that one can pursue. Many people say that teaching is not the same that it used to be and that people do not look to them as they once had. I concede that the world is changing and that teacher’s positions have changed but I refute that because the world is changing it does not necessarily mean that teachers’ characters have changed, in fact as a result of the changing world, a teacher must be that much more extraordinary. Twenty years ago schools did not worry about guns, bombs, or extreme threats. The biggest problems in the fifties were chewing gum and talking. Today children carry much more weight on their shoulders than any decade before. I have learned through readings, my own observations and from teachers, children of today’s society live uncertain lives. Today many children go home to unhealthy environments such as drug use, physical abuse, alcoholic family members, emotional abuse, poverty, instabilities and neglect. How can these children be expected to learn academics when faced with these problems? I concede that not all children suffer from neglect or poverty but with one in every two marriages in America ending in divorce, many children are indeed faced with troubles. Children deal with so much more today than yesterday, teacher...

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...e world is forever changing. In the past, parents were all that children needed. With growing population, outbreaks of drug and alcohol abuses, severe poverty, both parents possessing careers, and finally single parent homes, children lead uncertain lives. The only hope for a child to escape these problems is school, while the only hope for schools to help and teach these children is to continue to guide and put forth the extra effort that children of today need. As a future teacher I plan to help the next generation lead out of their darkness into a light of hope. I hope to be a teacher that children will look back to and know made a difference in their life decisions. I plan to be a person that not only worked her way through her own trials but also can make a difference. I believe that my classroom motto will be “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”