Why I teach: Sarai Pearl, middle school English, Springfield

I have a lot of things that have inspired me to be a teacher. My first inspiration specifically for English teacher started when I was super-young. My mom also was an English teacher, and now she's a librarian, so that passion for reading has been instilled in me in such, like a young age. So the love for my subject matter happened in, like, in between covers, reading little books to one another in silly voices. But my love for teaching happened later, when I realized that the fun part of learning content for me was when I was able to, after school, go with my friends and help them on things they didn't understand.

I have a younger brother named John, and he was the subject to many, like, summer school trainings. We had, like, a little mat set out. We had nap time breaks still, because he's younger than me, but we did all four of the subjects. My mom would get us, my mom and dad would get us workbooks so I could work on page three with him today and for tomorrow, right? So yeah, even as a kid I loved the construct of school and the ability to teach somebody something that got them excited.

I tell everybody, your first year is such a big, like, trying out new things and learning the scope of the field, and by, like, year three or four, you start to feel more assured of yourself. So now that I'm on year six, I feel like I have a larger bag of tools to, like, pull from.

Sarai Pearl

Extended Play: Hear more from Sarai Pearl on her experience as a teacher.

Listen • 14:04

I think that teaching becomes more manageable the better of a community that you have. And that's not even just talking about, like, a community of students or a community of parents, but that's the community of educators. You surround yourself with the leadership that any particular building has. So I feel lucky to be working in a place where I feel like the community is very strong. But I have heard of other places struggling or suffering to retain teachers because of that community aspect.

I just think that teaching is in a really interesting place because it's relying — to like, keep people in the profession you rely on so many non-tangible things right now because the tangible things cannot be backed with, like, plays from our local government, right? So like the things that keep me here are the incredible cohort of educators or administration that really feels like they have my back, or students who I feel like I'm actually being able to, like, push forward into lovely things. Those are all completely non-tangible things, right? But things like classroom materials or things like, even just like your higher pay — all of these different things that are tangible are also so far out of a classroom teacher's control, right? Like, I cannot control the budget. I cannot control the legislature. Like, obviously I can do what every citizen I think should, which is, like, be active in local government, but it's just interesting to have so many non-controllable elements in the trickle down to the everyday classroom teacher.

I think teaching is a difficult job because when I'm standing here in front of my students, I want to feel like the expert in my subject matter, right? Or I want to at least feel like if they have a question, I don't know the answer, I can help them grow and get to that point. So I think the dichotomy is really difficult between being an expert in the classroom, having the degrees that I have, and then also being perceived by so much of the public as being untrustworthy, right? So the idea of either holding teachers up and worrying about if they are teaching what they are supposed to be teaching, or if they are teaching in a way that is somehow — like, the word indoctrination happens a lot, right? That duality of when I'm here, I feel like an expert and I feel excited to help promote growth within our newest generation, while I have older generations or generations who aren't in school anymore, consistently questioning me, right? And obviously everybody should be questioned. It just feels strange to have a profession built on teaching where other people who might not know exactly what I am teaching are constantly holding up like this air of suspicion about it, which is really strange and heartbreaking.

It is so difficult for me to see into the future with this profession, with all the uncertainty around it right now. So if if I could take a snapshot of like the past couple of years where I feel like I'm growing and learning and I get to uplift my students, and that's the piece that I can focus on, absolutely I would make the same choice again. But because looking into the future, you don't know how this profession is going to change or how this profession is seen in the eyes of the community or everything else around us for that matter, I think it would be hard to go back and tell a younger me that this is the end all be all choice. I love it here, and I'm so happy that I found it. It would be difficult to look a young version of myself, or a young version of anybody in the eyes and be like, hey, this is a rock-solid, stable career where you will feel fulfilled every moment of every day. I want our community and our parents to know that our real goal is promoting excellence within students so that they can set and achieve the goals that they are wanting for their own future. I do not come into my job, and I do not think teachers as a whole come into their job, putting themselves at the epicenter of their day. I come into my job consistently thinking about like, how can I support or how can I grow? Or how can I like even just observe students doing great, lovely things? So I wish that our community and our parents always knew that teachers as a whole are here for students, and it is not for ourselves to, how do I want to say this? It's not for like, self-gratification. That's not the point of this job. The point of this job is to just very plain and simply build these students up so that whatever path they want to choose in their life, they are equipped to do that, plain and simple. There is no other ulterior motive. It is just being here to love them and hope greatness happens for them.

I do have a lot of students that either have, like, struggles at home or they're facing even just, like, systemic issues like poverty, right? And it's difficult knowing, like, once I no longer see you in the building, I do not know what is going on. I do not know 100% the struggles that you are facing. But it is very secure, like, I feel more secure knowing that at least when they are in here, that they feel loved and that they have the chance to do what they like, want goal-wise, that they can say like, okay, well, during this time I can think about me and what I'm wanting to push myself to do and that I can find adults around me that are either excited for that for me, or can help me do that. I am a big believer in raising a child using the community around you, and I love making like parent connections within our Jarrett community and so many of the other teachers do in this building. That's why I love being here — so you get to feel like these are our students and this is our community. It's incredible.

One of my favorite things that I'm just starting to get to tap into now that it's my sixth year, is seeing old students, right? I think because like going back to that time element I talked about, I only have students for a few months. Really. It's honestly a blip in their lives. right? So when I get the chance to see them and see that they've continued to like, grow and evolve and become more and more individualistic and more themselves, it it just I feel honored to get to have been even a part of their story, right. Like, oh, I'm so proud of you. Look at all the incredible things that you either want to do or you have done or you're going to do. That's what keeps me coming back to it is like, I can see it's the end of third quarter right now and I'm having conversations with students already that are like, hey, look at where we started and look where we're here. Like over six months is incredible. And so when I get to see them as seventh graders come down and say, hi, Miss Pearl, or eighth graders, Miss Pearl, I'm going to Parkview soon, right.? It is the thing that keeps me coming back because I just like them so much. I'm so proud of them all the time.