My Reason for Choosing the Teaching Profession

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After I completed my high school education at Montego Bay High School (For Girls), I followed the natural progression pursued by my school mates at the time. I went to The Montego Bay Community College (MBCC) where I pursued the Arts/Humanities.

Of course, as Arts students, my peers and I knew that the next step would naturally be to pursue a degree at the University of the West Indies (UWI). It did not really matter to us what the course at UWI would be, all that mattered was that we would be UWI students. But then, something seemed pointless in that trajectory, to me, at eighteen years old. So, I began to consider deeply, the idea of a career, my future and my independence.

I reflected on what I loved. I loved to teach. I knew this because, as a teenager, I would have summer school on my parent’s veranda and invite all the children in my community. I thought about my strongest subjects. I always did well in English and Literature, and my teachers at Montego Bay High were such graceful, professional and model teachers that I always admired them. It was then that I had an epiphany, “Why not go to teachers’ college?” It did not matter to me that my peers were all going to UWI. I would choose the road not taken. So, I became a teacher of English “A” & “B” because I was a pragmatic eighteen-year-old.

I have, however, remained a teacher, not choosing to take up a better paying contractual teaching post in the US, because I truly enjoy having the positive impact I have had on my Jamaican students over the years. I love the fact that I get to make Jamaica a better place by imparting my best qualities and knowledge to our future leaders. I have remained a teacher because I believe it is one of the ways in which I can improve my country, and by extension, change the world. I hope to expand my positive influence on society by first becoming a Master Teacher and then becoming one of the best Principals of my generation.

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