If I Could Teach... by Ashley

If I Could Teach... by Ashley - October 2016 Scholarship Essay

Many people believe that teaching is to simply lecture and give information to a class. However, I believe teaching is something much more than that. Teaching is about expanding knowledge and making an emotional connection to your students to promote personal growth. If the roles were reversed and I were a teacher, I would teach a literature class. This may seem like a broad subject to teach, but that is exactly why I like it. Within this subject there are multiple components; reading and writing. Both of these subjects have always interested me, and they came naturally and easily to me at an early age. Both reading and writing can offer an array of different skills to be learned.
I would love to teach the reading portion of this course simply for the literature itself. There are so many good pieces out there that can teach plethora of lessons, or simply give the reader an emotional response. By reading certain pieces, we can learn about history and how it has drastically changed over time. For instance, we can look at war poetry such as Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen (viewer discretion is advised) to see the awful effects of war, and what it can do to a person. Comparatively, we can look at more modern literature which mainly focuses on evoking emotional responses with the reader, such as Marley and Me by John Grogan.
Secondly, I would love to teach literature for the writing section of the subject. I believe that people should have appropriate writing skills for future job opportunities, but also be able to use writing as a leisure activity. I would have my students write freely, either through poetry or short stories. Not only will this teach my students proper grammatical, punctuation, and format skills but it also encourages imagination and cognitive growth of the individual. My students would be able to express themselves freely through these writings, which promotes individuality while giving them something fun to do.
In summary, I would thoroughly enjoy teaching a literature class because a class like this has so much to offer. This type of class can serve as an educator about the different types of literature in the world, its effects on the reader, and about history. This course would also give students the communication skills that they need to strive in society, as well as promote individualism and emotional freedom. I believe that if I could teach my students the skills that this course would offer, then I could personally make a difference in their lives (and that’s really what teaching is about, isn’t it?)