Once upon a time, a girl was born to two teenage parents. She was born with a smile and a full head of hair, with an imagination that far exceeded her vocabulary. While she spent the majority of her adolescence lost in the pages of books, she spent an equal amount of time exploring the outside world as well. Through the trust of her parents to walk along the flat beaches of Mississippi, the giant peaks of Mt. Rainer in Washington, desert trails in Arizona, and rolling hills in Georgia, this little girl grew up learning about the world around her and the individuals that accompanied it. With her imagination and the imagination built by mountains of books around her, she grew from a little girl into an adult with a love of adventure and a life of compassion.
“Every child is born a naturalist. His eyes are, by nature,
open to the glories of the stars, the beauty of the flowers,
and the mystery of life.” – R. Search
I believe that human development relies on this primal urge to always keep searching, to always keep wondering, and to always keep learning. It is with this belief and with the above quote, that I begin my own personal journey into the educational world with emphasis in Early Childhood Education. As I begin my career as an Kindergarten teacher, I hope that I can instill the mystery of life in my students and to always have them wanting more. It would do us no good if we were to shut our eyes from the world around us, just to make money, pay bills, and pass peacefully at a ripe old age. It is what we do with the time from when we first open our eyes, to the time we last close them, that truly matters. I believe that this wanderlust begins in childhood and that is why I have made it my mission to become a professional in the field. By starting off teaching children who are so open to the world around them, by catching them early, I hope that I can be a source of supplied wonderment so that they may grow up always wanting more from life and have the knowledge to go out and get it.
I love your post. It is true that children have a sponge that just soaks up all the knowledge they exposed to . I believe that they should be exposed to all the wonderful things the world has to offer. We need to get them full of the knowledge. I think you have not just the thirst for knowledge but the thirst for teaching.
ReplyDeleteHi Emily! I love the title of your post this week, as it is a book I read to my class all the time. There is something about it that just grabs their attention and you can almost see their little brain wheels turning when I'm asking questions about the book to them. You no doubt will be an excellent kindergarten teacher as you have a way with words. I can relate to what you said about having a primal urge to always keep searching, always keep wondering, and always keep learning. I'm constantly trying to better myself, learn new things, and move forward and I see the same things in both of my girls. It is when a person sits back and looks around and says "this is good no need to change" they fall in a rut. Or at least that is how I feel. I wish you well on your move and new job!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post! I love that you started out with a story about how you have a love of adventure and learning and now you want to teach the children in your class to have that same eagerness to learn about the world around them and not just go through the motions to get through life. The best way to learn is to get out there and experience the world first hand and what is a better way to start that learning process than in your classroom while the children are young and soak everything in! I also grew up being an adventurous child who enjoying being outdoors and going places with my family. Although we did not go far when we traveled, there was still something to learn and see wherever we went! It makes me sad that many of the children in my own classroom do not have the opportunity to really explore the world because of their parents demanding work schedules but I try my best to bring some of the world into the classroom for them to enjoy and explore.
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