‘If you don’t love kids, you shouldn’t be teaching’
Audria Courtney is a sixth-grade science teacher.
“I’m a firm believer that if you don’t love kids, you shouldn’t be teaching. There are times when they’re going to test you. But if you work from that basis, you can kind of overlook all those things and use your energy to find ways to overcome some of the obstacles they throw at you.”
What sorts of obstacles?
“Some kids don’t come from the same background as say a person who’s more educated. Some of the basic values that you and I understand, these kids don’t. They don’t understand something like it’s not normal to throw things at your teacher. A lot of people have a really hard time with that, saying these kids should know this and know that. But the number of things they really don’t know is shocking.
“I believe an important part of our job is to help them understand right from wrong and to not be frustrated that they don’t know. That’s kind of why we’re there, to teach.”
— Audria Courtney
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