English Department Interview

I conducted an interview with Mrs. Humbert, a teacher in the English department. This interview dives into the mind of a teacher who has years of knowledge and wisdom.

I asked her why she started teaching and if she always wanted to become a teacher. She said, “I did not always want to become a teacher. I originally wanted to become a nurse, but my dad told me that my perfectionist attitude would make me unfit for the job. He told me that I would be devastated over losing a patient. So he then told me that I work well with young kids and that I should become a teacher.” She then talked about her dad also being a teacher before he was drafted to join the army. I was told that she was the only one left to carry out her father's love for education.

The second question that I asked was what is her favorite class to teach is? She said, “I like teaching the AP Language class because it is something new and it's a challenge”. I asked her what her the most challenging part was teaching the course. She said, “The biggest challenge that I have had was finding material. For instance, I am having problems finding grammer material at a higher level.” I then asked if it was a mistake for our teachers not teaching grammar more often. She said that it was not a mistake. “The students have to maintain the information that is given to them.” I also asked her if the reason for this is that the students  have to focus too much on testing. She said that that is a major part of it. There are so many things that we do not stress enough and that is put on the back burner. For instance, History is not stressed nearly enough. History connects many different subjects and helps us understand them better.

I then asked Mrs. Humbert what the biggest difference is between kids now and kids back when she was a student in high school. She said that the biggest difference is respect. Then, if a teacher asked you do to something, you would do it. There was no questioning authority. But that is not necessarily a good thing because you do need to sometime question authority.

For the final question I asked her to give a piece of advice to the kids of this year. Mrs. Humbert stated, No one can ever take your education away from you so value it and take advantage of the free one that you get.