Personal Statement: A Career In Early Childhood Education

The profession I want to pursue after college is teaching. I recently changed my major from Safety Management to Early Childhood Education, which is an extreme difference in course material. I never had much of an interest in my safety classes and solely chose the major based off good things people had told me. After college I would like to work in an elementary school; currently I think I would like to teach any grade from first through third. I believe ageism can be prevalent in the teaching profession. I recently observed a classroom at Knob Noster Elementary School and noticed that there were a lot of very young-looking teachers working there. I did not see many older teachers and the ones I did see were teachers that were working there when I attended the school years ago. This leads me to believe that schools are looking to hire younger teachers and may not consider hiring older ones first.
Ableism can also be prevalent in the teaching profession.
Not only can ableism be displayed by students, but it could also be displayed by the faculty of the school. More often than not, children are treated differently and bullied due to disabilities. I witnessed many times in school where a student with a disability would be bullied and teachers would do nothing about it; in my opinion that’s also a form of bullying. I can remember a boy in a wheelchair, whom I had gone to school with since kindergarten, being called names by the “popular” boys in high school so bad to the point where he was homeschooled part-time. My friend group and I would tell the boys to stop and even took it to the counselor, but nothing ever came of
it. I’m aware that most schools have a no bullying policy, but sometimes those policies are not enforced enough. It is important that teachers and parents clearly define how they expect others to be treated. As a future teacher I will not stand for bullying. It is in no way right to make another human being feel bad about who they are. It is also highly important to make students with disabilities feel included in classrooms. Overall, ageism and ableism can be displayed in the teaching profession. I know there will be times that I will have to deal with both issues. As I get older people might discriminate against me for my age; especially if I will be working with younger people. If I ever have to deal with ageism I will try to brush off the negativity. No matter how hard it is, I think it’s important to realize that ageing is a part of life and it happens to everyone. If the situation in the workplace was bad enough I would speak out about it in a respectful manner.