A Brief History in Time

In all honestly, I never planned on being an ESL instructor, but fate had a different path for me to follow.  After 3 stressful years as a police officer, I decided to finally  quit after a  very troublesome final month.  I wont go into too much detail, but that month involved a drive by shooting, a drunk driving accident which involved a 14 year old girl and a sexual abuse case involving a 12 year old girl and her uncle.  I had enough. The most shocking incident (to me) was how I handled the drive by shooting. It started after I pulled over a vehicle which matched the description of the car which was involved. On approaching the passenger side my senior partner yelled "gun" to indicate that one  of the suspects was holding a gun in hand.  The suspect raised the gun (on 3 separate occasions) and each time we made it very clear that he had to put his hands on his head. I was quite calm as the situation unfolded and in hindsight, i am surprised how effective my police training actualy was.  I remember taking a  a mental inventory of who would be investing the case (we pulled the car over in a neighboring city, thus it wouldn't be my co-workers doing the investigation).  I also mentally prepared how I would write the report if the shooting took place.  Finally I considered my departments protocol, along with laws that  concern the use of deadly force.  Once I decided that my actions were legal, I was quite calm with my decision if I needed to discharge my weapon.  Fortunately, when the the suspect tried to raise his weapon a third time, my partner stepped in front of me and very calmly put the gun next the suspects head and said "I wont miss from this far".  End of story.  I drove home during the morning and I was a bit disturbed of how quickly I decided that I could shoot another human being.  Yes, I had every legal right to fire my weapon, thus that wasn't the moral problem here.  The problem was how would my life changed if I actually  took another persons life. The thoughts were not comforting.  The decision to quit wasn't easy, but I  do not have regrets.

I then went into the mortgage business  and business was booming (God bless predatory loans).  Once the mortgage well started to dry up, I decided  to take a year off and travel with some friends.  Uncertainty about future employment led me to Korea.  I wanted to  stop eating away at  my savings, thus I took a hogwan job  while I researched new business opportunities.  I eventually bought a bar in Thailand and  2 years later, "Poof" just like magic, my savings were gone.  Licking my wounds, I headed back to Korea and looked at International business degrees and International law degrees, seeing that had some familiarity  in each field.  I became quite discouraged when researching schools in Korea. Again, I wont go into detail, but my options were quite limited with the universities and the  programs.  I was not all that impressed with the standards.  So at the ripe young age of 41 (and 10 months) I decided to enroll in STG, the this marked the first real commitment I made to my teaching profession.

There  have been several conflicts throughout my teaching career, most of which came from the lack of organization by administrative departments at the schools I have been employed with. Coming from  a quasi military background, I expect things to be much more organized than what I have experienced with the administrative departments at the colleges AND businesses I have worked at in Korea.  Due to the lack of their organization, it was difficult for me to commit to being an ESL/EFL teacher. I ALWAYS had one foot out the door. To be quite honest, my opinions about teaching were very negative, however, much has changed because of what I learned this past semester at STG, and  as a result, I am eager to learn more. Not to 'brown nose" here, but STG has been THE main influence on  why I am now committed to teaching.  Before starting STG, I never felt challenged in the classroom, nor did I feel as though I was REALLY contributing  much to my students.  Many of the reasons for these feelings were because how my employers have marginalized the English departments. My students are often permitted to miss my class due to projects for other departments and I am never given notice.  I am told to pass every student that has missed less than 5 classes and events, such as Sports Days and Musical Events have taken precedence over English.  All of which has led me to be very unmotivated in my approach.  The only reason I enrolled into SMU was for better job opportunities,  Since I have been teaching for so long, I assumed that I  pretty much knew all that is needed to know about teaching.  I was wrong, and I am glad for being wrong.  Since starting STG, I now have a clearer vision of what ESL/EFL teaching is about, and because of the new techniques I have learned AND NOW USE , I finally feel as though I am contributing to the lives of my students. This course has been a game changer for me, and being enrolled in STG has been the biggest turning point in my professional career. My personal life hasn't been effected much, seeing that I am not married, nor do I have children, so my decisions have very little effect on those close to me. However, I have changed greatly since living abroad and I tend to view this change as growth as opposed to a conflict of my values.  Empathy is very important to me, and being a teacher has helped me become a more empathetic person, and as a result my approach has changed when dealing with others. 

 This leads me to the question, "what forms of advocacy would be useful in my career?" Which can be very easily answered; I need to continue to educate myself (and my co-teachers) in the field in which we work.  With education and experience both at my disposal, I can speak from a voice of authority when making suggestions.  If my employer chooses not to listen, than I can  do my best to follow the school rules, or look for another job. Yes, I often do feel marginalized by my employer for reasons that Ilisted above,  however, I am of the belief that pursuing an education in  ESL/EFL is the biggest step one can make to be taken seriously.  If you don't take your job seriously, than no one else will, and educating yourself is the biggest way to advocate positive change in a working environment.