You're the Best! Around!
EDU150
Jared T. Byrd
January 28, 2010
Why is it, I wonder, that I am always so contrary? I seek out the defects in a good thing and the advantages of misfortune. Might be part of my survivalist nature. It’s to one’s advantage not to take in a good thing blindly, and to be able to see the gain from the disasters that come our way.
Maybe it was the nature of the interview, but I think that’s because the interviewer saw the same things I did. Best was very uncomfortable under that camera. He disguised his nerves as excitement, but she was quite correct; he didn’t want to talk about himself or his origins or his peers back in school. I believe, core to his being, is a culture he desperately was trying to escape.
“Comfortable”, he called his parents. In up-state New York that means more money than some small countries. He went to an affluent boarding school (as revealed by the interviewer), graduated from an Ivy League school, went under his own power to a foreign country to study sculpture and learn the language. This man has his origins in money.
With that in mind, so many other pieces fall into place. Many of his peers went on to start with six figure salaries, as he could have as well. Instead he made the deliberate decision to teach in an inner-city school, “penance,” the interviewer called it. His second choice was to be a police officer. Both of these professions would represent an affront to upper-middle class American parents from a money-centric culture. I believe they represent a protest against these values he was raised with and a cry of support for community-centered values.
I do not feel, however, that this in any way detracts from what he is doing. This only points out the reason behind his resolve. It also gives some indication of how far his dedication would go. He has no interest in wealth; he was born with the taste of money and found it wanting. He is seeking fulfillment by another road. I think it may be just like he said, while he may be exhausted at the end of any given day, he’ll never stop so long as he’s able to teach. A positive figure, though not necessarily a role-model for every aspiring teacher.