Today I was hired by Crowley ISD to be an AVID tutor. It made me think back to what it was that motivated me to get into the education profession. I was never a good student, and nobody I went to school with would have ever guessed this was a path that I would choose. It motivated today’s post.

I hope you enjoy it.

What takes us from one point of our lives to another? Are there specific points that can be used as markers that define who we are and what we believe? When I was in high school I was absolutely convinced of my inadequacies. Was I really inadequate though, or did the environment I was in convince me of that? At this point in my life I can pretty easily say that those thoughts were wrong. I’ve written two books, designed more than a dozen websites, and I’ve taught myself (with a little help from my friends) multiple programming languages. I have found that I thrive on learning, something nobody would have guessed a decade ago. Does that mean it was my experiences in the education system that made me feel like inadequate?

For me, it was getting to know my wife’s grandfather that changed my perceptions. In him I saw a man that truly loved to learn; someone who could not get enough of it. Every time I saw him he had new books he was reading and new websites to show me. That attitude is infectious, in a good way. Critical thinking is something most schools don’t take the time to teach; they don’t often give children an inner desire to learn. We live in an age that has a world full of information at our fingertips, but only if we choose to use it.

It is for this reason that I am so excited to start a new stage in my life. Today I was hired for my first job in the field of education. I could not have asked for a better entrance to this career path. The program I was hired for is called AVID. The program was designed to take average kids and prepare them to try harder and get into advanced placement classes. The program takes kids and teaches them how to become better students. My job is to teach them to teach themselves. I think the best thing I can give them is what my grandfather has given me. A true desire to learn.

It is a challenge that I am ready to meet! Thanks, Daddy Dave!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 9:35 pm and is filed under Education, Writings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.