Why I Want To Be A Teacher

Well, it's October. In NC, this would mean sweaters, pumpkins, lots of coffee, and leaves changing! In Mexico, this means less rain, but pretty much just as much heat. This also means that I've been in Mexico for over two months. This also marks probably the longest period of time in over four years that I have not had any contact with students. Sure, I go to university every day, but I don't have an internship in a public school, I don't tutor, and I don't have camp where I'm surrounded by 70-100 kids EVERY SINGLE DAY!! I miss it. I don't remember when I decided I wanted to be a teacher (it certainly wasn't my original career choice), but I'm so excited that teaching is what I'll be doing for at least four years of my life.

In Mexico, there is, as in every country, a lot of poverty. I don't really see it too much here because I am a university student, I live with a upper middle class family, and Guanajuato is a pretty wealthy, tourist-y city in comparison with other places in the country. Poverty still exists, however. The thing that I have the hardest time with here is seeing all the child beggars. You can sit in a restaurant or in any place downtown and, in the period of an hour, there will be around 5 different children, all under the age of 10, asking you to buy gum or flowers for a couple of pesos. You have to say no, even though it breaks your heart. What struck me when I first arrived in Mexico was that children would come in to bars and clubs trying to sell these things, sometimes even at 2 in the morning. This is even worse because these children should be in bed and should NOT be allowed to enter a place full of alcohol and cigarette smoke.

My instinct is to adopt all of these children and give them the opportunity to go to school. More and more I'm convinced that an education is especially vital for children who need to break free of the circle of poverty that they live in. These are the kind of students I want to teach.

I heard a song the other week that reminds me of these kids I see every day:
Esta es la historia de Juan, el nino que nadie amo
que por las calles crecio, buscando el amor bajo el sol
su madre lo abandono
su padre lo maltrato
su casa fue un callejon
su cama, un carton
su amigo, Dios

Juan pregunto por amor
y el mundo se lo nego
Juan pregunto por honor
y el mundo le dio deshonor
Juan pregunto por perdon
y el mundo lo lastimo
Juan pregunto y pregunto y el mundo jamas lo escucho

El solo quiso jugar, el solo quiso sonar, el solo quiso amar
pero el mundo lo olvido
el solo quiso volar, el solo quiso cantar, el solo quiso amar
pero el mundo lo olvido

This is not to say that there are only these type of children just in Mexico. There are so many in the United States, as well. It's easy to laugh at all the stereotypes in this song, but there's a lot of it that's also very true.

And all my people drug dealin jus to get by, stack ya money till it gets sky high
We wasn't supposed to make it past 25 but the joke's on you, we still alive
Throw your hands up in the sky and say we don't care what people say

If this is your first time hearing this you are about to experience something cold man
We never had nothing handed, took nothing for granted
Took nothing from no man, man I'm my own man
But as a shorty I looked up to the dopeman
Only adult man I knew that wasn't a broke man

You know the kids gonna act a fool when you stop the programs for after school
And they DCFS them some of them dyslexic, they favorite 50 Cent song's 12 Questions
We scream, rock, blows, weed park so now we smart
We aint retards the way teachers thought
Hold up hold fast we make mo'cash. Now tell my momma I belong in the slow class
It's bad enough we on welfare
You trying to put me on the school bus with the space for the wheel chair
I'm trying to get the car with the chromy wheels here
You tryin to cut our lights like we don't live here
Look at what's handed us, our father's abandoned us
When we get the hammers gone and call the ambulance
Sometimes I feel no one in this world understands us
But we dont care what people say

There are students like this in every country, that speak every language, and there is no reason why they should not have the same opportunities as everybody else. This is why I want to be a teacher.