Why I quit the private sector and became a teacher
Posted by mrwaddell on 12 May, 2008
I had a very Ah HA! moment today. I was doing a lesson on graphs, and had the annual reports from GE and Citibank as examples of why graphs matter. As I was passing them around and discussing the different graphs present, a group of Hispanic learners were looking at the pictures of the Board of Directors and of the people in charge of GE. One of the learners said, “none of these people look like me.”
(taken from GE’s website)
You know, he was exactly correct. 3 women, 1 African American male, and one of the women is African American. No Hispanics at all.
Is that really a problem? I mean, just because they don’t have any Hispanics on the board is that a problem with GE? I don’t think so. But it does mean that we need to have some educated and smart young people who can put themselves on board of directors and run companies. Given the statistics of the population, many of those smart young people will be Hispanic.
I quit working in the private sector because I care about making sure that these kids aren’t counted out before they even get started. The best way to do that was to get involved and make it happen myself.
Is there really a better reason to start teaching?
