I am a teacher.
I love my job...correction: I loved my job.
I used to love going to work and seeing the kids' faces as they get the "oh-I-get-it" look or being there to teach a lesson and be "on" for the day. Teaching was like a performance for me. I would prep, plan, mark, rehearse, study and then it would be my show. Working with the kids, creating connections, watching them grow and learn and become well-informed young adults, was all just a part of what I do. I used to love all of that.
I loved creating, learning, improving and growing, but now that's all being taken away from me.
I chose to become a teacher because of the incredible teachers I had in the 90s. The job never seemed easy and I wanted the challenge of being in charge and the responsibility of helping shape a child's future.
Yes, summers off did appeal to my college brain at first, but it's the respect earned by my teachers that I saw as the true benefit (the pension plan looked pretty good, too). That respect has now been stripped away. That respect and gratitude is shadowed by the constant belittling by the B.C. Liberal government.
I don't have the taxpayers' money in my pocket. I don't choose where the money goes. I do my job. I do it well. I do it 100 per cent, but the government takes 10 per cent of my hard earned wage. I am a teacher. I teach the future. I want the respect I have earned back and I want my students to get the respect they deserve by having a government fund their education properly.
I am a teacher.
Juliet Branco, B.A., BEd
Mackenzie
