Why I Teach
It’s Thursday evening at 6:44. Maybe you’re wrapping up your shift at work. Maybe you’re making dinner, or just walking through the door to kiss your spouse after a long commute. Maybe you’re checking in on a parent or a loved one. Maybe you’re studying for that night class.
Me, I’m arranging papers in an empty classroom, grabbing one last teaching prop out of the supply closet. I’ve just arrived, usually flying through the door late and harried. I still have the stresses of my day job churning through my mind. I’m tired. I make a mental note to remember to send that one last email about tomorrow’s morning meeting agenda.
But at 6:45, a stream of English learners bursts through the door. They’ve had the same long week as I have. They’re often holding down one or two jobs, caring for extended family or friends. Oh, and navigating the complexities of a new city, a new country, a new culture. A new language.
They offer me grins, hugs and high-fives. They settle in and affix their name tags. They show me photos of their nephews and pets on their phones. They say, “Meghan, you won’t believe what happened to me this week.” They look proud to be able to relay a story in English. They couldn’t be happier to be in school.
My students show up faithfully every single week, for no reason other than that they want to learn. They don’t pay a dime for the classes, and they don’t have parents or the law telling them they have to come learn. They just want to learn. They want to be with a community of people who shares their experience. And it’s amazing, because they all have such different experiences.
I’ve had students who are LGBTQ asylum seekers from parts of the world where they were denied basic rights based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. I’ve had a student in her ’80s who moved to the U.S. from Peru to be near her children. I’ve had students who say they want to learn English so they can get a better job and others who say it’s so that they can seem cool to their grandkids, who prefer to speak English. Recently, one of my students had his brother in town visiting from Brazil for two weeks. You would think they would skip class to hang out together and have a relaxing vacation, right? No, he brought his brother to class with him.
Language is one of the most important (and least celebrated) ways we connect with each other. It’s also possibly the most powerful eraser of boundaries, because it allows us to express ourselves and understand one another, which, let’s face it, is really half the battle.
It was when I spent a semester in Spain during college that I started thinking philosophically about the importance of language to human connection. My parents came to visit and when they met my host parents, each couple only spoke a few words of the other’s language. But they were able to piece a few things together, making heavy use of gestures and of me as a translator, and it felt like an incredible achievement for all of us to be able to communicate across this massive cultural ocean. Even a simple word like “breakfast” made them burst into excited smiles.
When people hear I volunteer teach English classes, they’ll often ask me why. It’s 100% for the people. I started teaching nearly 5 years ago, and from the first class it was evident those nights were going to be my favorite time of the week. As exhausted as I am from the week, the day, all the small annoyances of life, the smallest breakthrough (like when a student makes a joke in English, or when we overhear one counting under her breath in English instead of Spanish for the first time) erases everything else. Their enthusiasm, stories, and endless thirst for learning energizes me.
Want to help? You don’t have to teach. Here’s another way you can help make an English learner’s day.
