For my first blog post, I thought I would delve straight into a topic that has been haunting my thoughts lately. So, here goes.
I have never thought much of the job title "Influencer". It seemed to me to come across as arrogant and attention seeking. But, watching the new advertisement campaign for teachers as the original influencers has given me the opportunity to think about the title and all of those who carry this responsibility either by choice or without realizing they have such powers more thoroughly. Coming from a generation that was taught to think of actors and athletes as role models instead of those who should truly be considered role models such as teachers, doctors, hardworking blue-collar workers who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty in order to keep people's cars on the road, toilets flushing, and the power that runs all of the technology that we have come to rely on running, or the farmers who keep food on the tables of the masses, who are the real unsung heroes. And as such maybe "influencer" is a better title for these dutiful individuals who are not about seeking glory, gratitude, or fame.
However, with that newly recognized title comes insurmountable responsibility. It is difficult for me to think of the term influencer without thinking about those individuals in my life or my children's lives who have had the most influence whether positive or negative. Sticking to the original theme of this blog, that teachers are the original influencers, here are a few examples of both positive and negative teaching influences from my family's experiences.
Example 1 (Positive Influencer) Mr. Hocking (freshman and sophomore English), and Mr. Leighman (creative writing junior year), two of my high school English teachers back in the 1980s growing up in Southern California. If it weren't for these two men continually encouraging me, seeing my potential, and gently guiding me through the rough patches of learning so that I could explore those areas of writing that genuinely interested me I may never have fulfilled my life dream of being a writer. For that matter, if it hadn't been for my fifth-grade teacher Mrs. Tucker, submitting my poetry to the New Yorker magazine for publication, I may never have realized I had a talent for writing at all.
Example 2 (Negative Influencer) Mr. Pitts (sophomore geometry) this man did nothing to help me learn. Geometry was a particularly difficult subject for me. It is the only subject that I have ever had to take twice, and Mr. Pitts was my second attempt at passing this subject. He was out of the class so frequently as the teacher's representative for the state board of education that I accredit passing his class at all to the main substitute teacher that typically filled in for him (sadly his name escapes me, but his patience and time spent helping me grasp even a little bit of the concepts of geometry never have). And when Mr. Pitts was in class he did less teaching than testing.
Example 3 (Positive Influencer) Mrs. Bell (my son's special education teacher), this woman was a godsend. She is the main reason my son went to class at all. She made learning fun and focused her teaching to fit his specific needs, not treating him like he had to fit into a specific style of learning or he was stupid, as many of his other teachers did.
Example 4 (Negative Influencer) My son's sophomore history teacher/ football coach. I am intentionally leaving the name off of this one, as I blame this individual for my son giving up on high school all together. This individual started out as a positive influencer and in one action changed everything. My son was not a big guy size wise in high school, but he was good at football. His problem was he couldn't seem to keep his grades up in order to actually play in the games. Knowing how much my son wanted to play, this individual told my son if he got his grades up so that he was permitted to play, that he could play in the last game of the season since it fell after report cards came out. For the first time in my son's scholastic history, I saw him buckle down and try. And, he did it. He brought all of his grades up to a C+ or better and was officially academically permitted to play. However, when the time came to let my son play, this teacher/coach left my son sitting on the bench and told him he was too small to play. My son was no smaller than when this man made this deal with him originally. From that point on my son gave up on trying, saying that all teachers were liars and it didn't matter how hard he tried, they would just let him down again. Eventually he gave up all together and dropped out.
Example 5 (Positive Influencer) My son's first grown up job's boss, the owner of Denver Electrical, (I don't know her name.) She hired my son as an apprentice with the understanding that he would take the exam to enter electricians' school that her company would pay for him to attend. When he was having an issue with passing the math portion, this very busy woman didn't fire him. She saw his potential and spent her very valuable time tutoring him, so that he passed the exam, and four years later graduated with a four-year college degree in electrical. Being a teacher influencer doesn't mean you have to work for a school.
Example 6 (Negative Influencer) This one is one of my daughter's high school teachers, I am not sure which one or I would have given them a piece of my mind a long time ago. My daughter has always loved school and been at the top of her class. So, this influence was of a more personal nature. I named my daughter Jessika with a "K" on purpose, loving the way it looked when written out, before the name Jessica became popular. She never really had too much of a problem with her name other than there were so many Jessica's in her classes (It seems everyone else decided to like the name at the same time I did), until this individual decided that it would be funny to call her his "Ika" instead of Jessika with a K. He had four Jessica's in his class and my daughter was the only one who spelled it with a "K". To this day, my daughter now hates her name and gets angry anytime someone calls her Jessika instead of Jessey.
There are many more examples that I could give of teachers influencing mine and my children's lives with one simple act, or word, such as the preschool teacher who made fun of the way I combed my daughter's gorgeously curly hair, (I've never been good with hair), and made her self-conscious for the next twenty years, of her perfect locks that women pay a fortune to have. But I won't go into them, since I think I have provided plenty of relevant proof of how important it is to take the role of "Influencer" seriously before acting or saying something that will permanently affect a child's life views and actions. I respect how difficult it is to be a teacher and how important the position is when it comes to the future of society. I do, however, think that there is a need for improvement when it comes to those individuals who have not taken their role of influencer seriously.
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