Teachers have many responsibilities in their profession, including balancing grades, managing student behavior, and caring for their own lives outside of school. In their years of teaching, educators wished that students knew how important education and maintaining grades are.
History teacher Thomas Puentes taught many subjects, ranging from math, history, science, and music; however, he now teaches history. Throughout his years of teaching, he has noticed mostly underclassmen being unproductive when it came to classwork.
“Their whole life in school, it changes, because when they first come in, they’re not mature enough to know the importance of school. By the time they’re a junior, they’re realizing that they wasted a lot of time goofing off and dragging their feet not doing their work,” Puentes said.
Education builds personal growth and other skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and confidence.
According to GCU, a private Christian university located in Phoenix, Arizona, the benefits in education create stability, independence, accomplishments, connection and productivity.
The skills are essential throughout life as they apply to driving, career and analyzing dilemmas.
There are a variety of classes to choose from. These include more AP classes, which are faster-paced and cover more in-depth topics in comparison to regular classes due to their college-level aspect.
“I think that’s one of the things that, that students think sometimes, like, ‘oh, like, it’s gonna be easy, but not everything is easy’ and not everything’s supposed to be easy in life, and sometimes the most rewarding things are the most challenging things,” psychology teacher Jeff Garcia said.
Garcia also mentioned that communication is important and asking for help when needed is “super important” to clear up any confusion regarding school work.
English teacher Alaina Kaplan finds that the assignments for students are to build skills such as communication, time management and analytical thinking to prepare for any situation in the world beyond school.
“There are natural consequences to things. For example, getting behind on your assignments because you’re confused and not asking for help. The natural consequence of that is we fall behind and we feel unsure and maybe we get anxiety,” Kaplan said.
Furthermore, she wishes students knew that teachers care and want them to strive to be successful.
Moreover, maintaining good grades all throughout high school is important to remain eligible for graduation status.
“I wish they knew the importance when they were the ninth and the 10th grade, because most of them wind up not graduating or just coming out of school with a bad experience because they didn’t realize the importance of it the beginning,” Puentes said.
Education builds personal growth and other skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and confidence.
“We want you to be the best version of yourself that you can be…even if it feels frustrating like having to do an assignment that you feel is silly, we’re doing these assignments to help you build the skills so that you can go out into the world and be the best version of yourself,” Kaplan said.
Overall, ensuring assignments are completed on time and focusing in class as well as asking for help when needed all contribute to the learning experience and keeping good grades.
“It’s also always important to know that your teachers are here for you, and we’re a support system, and if you ever need help, don’t be afraid to ask for help,” Kaplan said.
