By. Lawren Miller

Casper College Education Majors are learning that becoming a teacher is harder than it sounds by learning passion is what drives teachers to do what they do.

For CC students Rachel Kolker and Mallery Lyon passion is what drives them to pursue careers as teachers.

Lyon, a secondary education major, said, “I think at least me personally, it is most certainly passion over material.”

Casper College Education students want to lead with passion. By leading with passion they teach with their whole heart.

“If you’re gonna teach, have a passion,” math major Kolker states.

Passion for the art of teaching is the focus and driving force for the students in the education programs at CC. 

Role models are also a common aspect of motivation for young students seeking careers in education, especially the students that wish to fill those roles in the classroom one day too. Lyon shared her personal experience with a role model in school.

She said, “I grew up with a learning disability, and the teacher who encouraged me to work hard became a strong motivator for me not to let things stop me when they get hard. That is what propelled me into being a teacher.” 

Kolker shared she is committed to becoming the role model for her future students.

“Some students create a strong bond with a teacher that drives them. I want to be that for a student—the teacher they work hard to make proud,” Kolker said.

While teachers are often the heroes for the students they teach, the treatment and pay for many teachers in the field isn’t reflective of their work. 

Lyon, whose mom works as a special education teacher, said that teachers in those roles “get hit the hardest” because people feel they “aren’t teaching as much as they are babysitting.” 

Kolker echoed Lyon, citing a comparison that “babysitters get paid more than literal teachers who have four [year, or] six-year degrees”

Education Instructor Abigail Bishop, who worked as a K-12 teacher for 22 years, also backed the idea that teachers no longer receive the level of respect they once did. 

She said, “It (teaching) just isn’t super highly valued. I mean it’s not even considered a profession anymore.”

Being a teacher isn’t typically seen as a challenging profession to the people who aren’t actively in the field doing it every single day, but the work proves to be the opposite for the students that are seeking to become a teacher and to those that are already a teacher themselves.

Bishop spoke of her time as an elementary school teacher and how that role challenged her because she had the job of “regulating the nervous systems of 36 students plus [her] own.”

Bishop highlighted that teachers are also often not given all of the tools to actually successfully teach their students.

“I would say a huge problem is that they are being asked to do so much … and then not properly trained and supported and valued like they need,” Bishop said. 

Lyon stated,”I always felt slightly ashamed to say I was going into elementary ed because there’s… a stigma toward people thinking it’s not as important as it really is or it’s just easy.”

Then there is the monetary pay of teachers. 

Bishop said that in some regions, the pay is so low that “you for sure have to have two jobs” because society does not “pay for your expertise and for your knowledge.”

Lyon shared a discussion she had with her dad, recalling that he said, “You’re not going to be paid as well as you think you will. … It’s a hard career path to dive down into if you want to be paid comfortably.”

But teachers still do the work. Passion for the art that is teaching shows there are more important things than just collecting a check at the end of the pay period. Working in education shows true humanity. 

The fact that people study to teach the next generation shows that they know how important it is that kids not only learn, but also feel a connection to the person teaching them. 

Kolker said, “What keeps me motivated … is that one day I’ll be able to impact a kid’s life in some way.”

Lyon also backs this idea up by saying, “I just love absorbing the way youth look at the world and embracing that magic.”

Bishop says that connecting with students on a deeper level helped her best know how to teach her students. Some see a trouble maker while Bishop sees a kid that needs extra support.

“I have come to realize that I’m a developer because I love to see people get it,” Bishop said. “They’ll struggle and struggle and struggle and then I’ll hear some of the things that we’ve been talking about come out and I’m like yes. You got it! That feeds my soul.”

At the end of the day, teachers are trying. They are trying to connect, teach, and grow the passion of young people that could one day be standing in the shoes that they stand in now. They understand that their job is important and that’s why they do it. It’s not about the money; it’s about inspiring.