Overcoming Ignorance.

It's frustrating to me that some people at BYU don't respect elementary education majors.

It was frustrating when someone told me that my future career was nothing but "glorified babysitting." It was also frustrating when someone implied that I was too dumb to understand a joke because I was an elementary ed major.

I once felt pressured by the "smart" majors around me, when someone told me, "YOU validate yourself in your own major." (you know who you are!) I took her advice and try to apply it every day. I want to be a smart, capable, hard-working teacher.

Maybe people just don't understand what an elementary teacher really does. Maybe they only know what they vaguely remember from their elementary school experience years ago. Maybe they only had terrible teachers growing up. Maybe they think that teachers just hand out worksheets and nag the kids to stop talking all day. Maybe they think the hardest part of the job is sharpening pencils.

Maybe they think that because teachers are paid like dirt, teachers are worth dirt.

Maybe they don't realize that teaching is both an art and a science. That teaching is a craft which is perfected over many years of experience. That a great teacher is a storyteller, a debate moderator, a scientist, a counselor, and a democratic leader (not a dictator).

Maybe they don't know that the word "worksheet" will be a forbidden word in my classroom, that my students will spend as much time out of their desks as they will in them. Maybe they don't realize that instead of reading about history from outdated textbooks, my students will act it out, will research it on their own, will debate it and teach each other about it.

Maybe they don't realize that, instead of accepting the crappy conditions of whichever underfunded school I find myself in, I will spend my weekends applying for grants so that my students will have better materials.

Maybe they think that the most time-consuming part of my future job will be un-jamming the copy machine so I can print more worksheets, when really, it will be building a time machine out of cardboard boxes late at night so my students will have something to inspire them as they read about the past.

Maybe they think I'll just yell at the kids to shut up and pray that the clock will go faster so I can go home and watch t.v., when instead I will be praying that my students will succeed, praying that they will feel loved, praying that I will know how to best teach them, every single day.

So when someone insults me because I'm an elementary education major, when someone insinuates that I must not be smart, when someone even just gives me a cocky smirk when I tell them that I want to be a teacher... I will give them the benefit of the doubt, just in case they don't realize the magnitude of my future profession.

But even so, I will pity them, because--even though they might be wealthier some day--they are already more ignorant and inconsiderate than I will ever allow myself to be.

And I will teach their children to know better.