The big question: Who inspired you to teach?

Everyday children inspire me to teach. Their love of learning, natural curiosity, and yearning to understand the world around them inspires me to share what I know with them and to embark on a journey to learn things together.

But the big question was in the past tense. Who inspired me to teach? Ahhhh, it seemed like such an easy assignment at first until I tried to seriously answer the question. There were a few things that made this question difficult to answer: a) that my answer would be posted on the world wide web for all to see and I am a notoriously private person, b) I wasn’t sure if I could pick just one person, and c) it was a question that required a great deal of thought and insight to answer honestly.

In class we used appreciative inquiry (a fancy way to say we used group discussion) to collaboratively create a list of attributes of teachers who inspired us. By creating this list first in small groups and then as a class we were able to appreciate the similarities in our lists once we combined them and explore the differences too. 

So, who inspired me to teach?

A few teachers come to mind for different reasons. However, I would like to choose to name only one at this time.

Mary-Ann Ploshynsky

I have often divided my life into different chapters. Two distinct chapters that exist in my life are life before my brother died and life after. Mary-Ann is special because of the place she had after. 

So often we get hung up on a teacher’s ability to teach curriculum. Parents focus on what their children know rather than what they know how to do, demand to know “what you learned today”, and so forth. What is lost in classifying a teacher’s worth this way is the things that teachers give to us that cannot be compartmentalized or measured. The things, I would argue, that are really important.

Mary-Ann was a special teacher for the skills she helped students develop and for the way in which she did it. I grew up in a small, rural town and Mary-Ann was not always a parent’s favourite teacher. Parents would grumble that she wasn’t teaching us enough of “what we needed to know” or that she was eccentric (she did like to carry a large juice jug of green water around). Students would often join in on some of these criticisms and judgements because in a small town it is easier to be a “sheeple” than to stand out on your own. Of all the benefits of small town life, an open mindedness to uniqueness would seldom be listed. In addition, when you are a student you don’t always know what is best for you and rely on adults to help you form your opinions as you develop.

Mary-Ann was a student centred teacher. This made her unique for me in my educational experiences because I grew up in largely traditional classrooms (though had mostly positive experiences as a student). However, Mary-Ann seldom favoured being traditional. She was an intelligent, positive, outspoken woman and was not afraid to go against the grain and stand up for her students. She was highly energetic and enthusiastic. In addition, she always encouraged students and tried to help them find their own place in the world. Some of Mary-Ann’s most valuable help came to me when I had not yet found my place...

My brother died when I was in grade six and in grade eight my Grandmother also died. I will never forget the day she saw me breaking down in the classroom and made the split second decision to drop everything she was doing and reach out with open arms and a warm heart to try and ease a young girl’s pain and confusion. She took me out of the classroom for a long walk through our town campground/park. Mary-Ann didn’t bother with any formalities or paper work; she acted on instinct and gave my soul just what I needed: some love and understanding. She didn't worry about her long list of things to do or the lesson plan she was going to miss teaching that day. Her primary concern was always her students well-being. Such kindness was not any kind of favouritism towards me. She found ways to use her keen intellect and social intelligence to help students any way she could on a regular basis.

Mary-Ann never gave me her pity but rather provided a positive adult mentor to me, someone who was a safe haven to talk to. Seldom did I share too much, the comfort was simply in having someone around who would take the time to listen. I always related to people older than me better than people my age and Mary-Ann recognized and respected this. In addition, she offered something that few others could in my life could: a connection to my brother. Being the youngest by eight and ten years respectively, many of my classmates and teachers barely knew my siblings. However, Mary-Ann knew my brother well and had taught him. Having someone to share memories and anecdotes with was a key component to working my way through the grieving process. 

There are countless gifts that Mary-Ann imparted during our student-teacher relationship but the best gift of all that she gave was her time. I hope when I become a teacher in my own classroom I never forget this, no matter how busy my life might get.