Our Hidden Heroes

Maleiah Ewert

Belinda O’dell teaching her Special Ed class.

Maleiah Ewert, Editor
August 29, 2018

 

The definition of a teacher is, “a person who helps others to acquire knowledge, competences or values.” But, what if there is more to teachers? What if teachers do more than just teaching us Math, English, History, Etc? What if teachers, teach us how to change the world.

Most of the time, we don’t see the behind the scenes of teaching.  All we see is the “useless” homework they give out, or the grading that they can never get done. “When I’m planning things I’m not just giving it to you guys for something to read, everything is purposeful,” said Mrs.Neiman, history and sociology teacher.  We also tend to think that teachers don’t care about us. “I want all my students to know how much I care about them. All of them mean so much to me,” said Mrs.Nieman. A lot of us think that teachers are counting down the hours until they get to go home from there “9-5” job. Neiman continues, “ I leave work and it’s always with me.  When I go home at night I’m thinking about kids, lessons to plan for them, or maybe someone got in trouble.”

Sometimes, teachers care about their job and sometimes teachers aren’t good at their job.  But, most times, It’s just the students mind set.

Teachers influence hundreds of kids each year. And not by just teaching us the quadratic formula, “I want students to know that I’m on their side, and not just to be better math students, I want them to know I care,” said Mr.Reith, math teacher.  They shape us into the next generation that will fix global warming, stop war, and have equality. They change the world by changing us. Many of them always knew, somewhere in their heart that teaching is what they want to do. “When I was in High School trying to figure out what the next step was going to be, It was the only thing that made sense to me,” said Mrs. Nieman. They only want what’s best for us and to help us get to where we want to be. “For the kids who really struggle, if it’s possible to give them a little hope that they can survive high school, and you can get through it, and give them optimism for the future,” said Mr.Malaby, English and yearbook teacher.

The most important thing about teachers that everyone should always remember, is that they’re just like us.  They have dreams and passions, they have a story, and the most important thing, is they all want to change the world, and they all have moment where it just clicked, and realized what their dream is.  “I was in college. I was a botany major. I was a Sophomore, and I was walking across campus , and it was the weirdest thing. It just hit me that what I really want to do is be a teacher, and I was walking to my botany class and I just stopped, turned around, and went straight to the education college and dropped everything, and became a teacher,” said Mr.Malaby.

Teachers are underappreciated.  They know they’re underappreciated but they keep on teaching.  Even though if it means they don’t get paid what they deserve, if they spend their own money on supplies, and if there are bad days, they keep on teaching. “There are moments where it’s just amazing, and moments where it can be just hard, but, the amazing moments out shine the hard ones,” said Mrs.Carey, history teacher. This is their dream, their way to change lives and the world.  They’re the reason for the people who change the world. So, let’s show appreciation to our underappreciated, hidden heroes.