My first day subbing for the third grade. One step closer to my dream of being a teacher-like my aunts. Long summers, paid holidays. My dream job, right? Wrong.
Picture this, a 19-year-old girl who is 4’10” surrounded by a bunch of grade-schoolers who keep calling me their best friend. I get it, I am short. Barely reaching some of their eye-levels blows my mind as I contemplate over what their parents feed them that mine didn’t.
It is 7:25 a.m. and the students are making their entrance into my classroom. I see them eyeing me down as their eyes grow wider. One of them comes up and looks down at me while asking if I am a new student. I respond, “No I am your teacher for the day, Ms. Diaz.” I hear gasps all around the room with a few giggles as they asked me, “how are you a teacher if you are so short?” In my head, I was thinking “Boy, how are you a third grader if you look like you could be in sixth?” Of course, I didn’t say that. I just laughed it off and told everyone to settle down so I can introduce myself.
It was challenging getting them to do the work they normally would if the teacher was present. They wanted to know my whole life story, and I just wanted them to do their work. Lunchtime came around, and I had lunch duty. As I entered the cafeteria, I turned to my right and noticed a group of little boys pointing at me and saying to one another, “Look she’s a midget” while laughing and not even caring that I was looking straight at them. To make the situation more awkward, I got yelled at by a teacher on lunch duty to sit down with my “class.” I flashed her my substitute badge and walked away with what dignity I had left.
I was basically picked on all day and unfortunately, it was not an isolated incident. The rest of my subbing days went pretty much the same way. However, I did not let it define me, even though it was making me double think if this was the right career for me, until one day when I was talking to my friend’s mom. She is a bilingual teacher and has been teaching over 15 years.
Since I am very comfortable with her I asked politely how much money she make a year. She responded with roughly around $50K.
My jaw dropped and I was confused. Too many thoughts were running around in my head like, “How has she been teaching for so many years and dealing with these little rascals and only getting 50K a year?!” But wait, there is more. She also mentioned that she has to buy supplies for her classroom out of her own pocket!
I was flabbergasted. I decided to do more research and asked my aunts about how much money they make. They also responded with a very low pay amount. Teachers are underpaid and undervalued. If people only knew what teachers have to go through in order for their children to get the education they deserve.
There have been numerous teacher strikes all around the states this year. Teachers are fighting for higher pay, more school funding, better benefits, additional staff, and many more issues that are plaguing the United States’ education system. I stand with the education movement. Believe me, educators should get paid more.
Long story short, I changed my major.
