I never thought that I would someday stand at the platform in front of children. (I am thinking that early childhood educator is in different category)
To tell the truth, I was always thinking that I don’t want to be an elementary school, junior high school teacher in the future from I was around teenage. Because I thought that I don’t want to be a teacher for kids who are right in the midst of adolescence, because I’ve been seeing my teachers in the position of the students, how hard it is to handle 20, 30 kids, and some classes more than 40.
I was actually amazed myself that I received the offer to be an English teacher. In fact, I was imagining freely that I teach lower grades such as first grade or second grade, so I was surprised at the height of the age group of my class actually over there.
I am still not quite far away from the age of high school students (because I just graduated from high school a few years ago), so I could understand the students’ felling such as wanna skip classes somehow, just wanna play instead of studying, staring a girl that he likes. Sometimes when I see those kids, I remembered my high school memory.
Of course, the early childhood education I studied and the older age education are completely different, and to be a teacher without any educational experience of those older ages, I straggled a lot and it made me thoughtful. There were countless things that I actually stood on the platform as a teacher.
Away from my classes, littles ones in kindergarten, first grade, second grade seemed to like me pretty much even I didn’t have their classes. After all, I realized that is my field to be in the young age group.
When I was in my teens, I never thought I will be an educator. But rather than being fascinated by the professional job as an educator, I am just fascinated by children, and I am still an educator.
自分がいつか、教壇に立って子供達に授業をするなんて夢にも思ってなかった。（保育士は教壇の上とは別だと僕は考えている。）
実を言うと、10代の頃から、自分は将来絶対に小学校、中学校の先生にはなりたくないと思っていた。自分が生徒という立場で先生を見てきて、自分が自分たちみたいな思春期真っ只中の生徒の先生にはなりたくないと思っていたから。20、30人、時には40人以上の思春期の生徒達をまとめるのがどれだけ大変か。
自分でも今回のオファーを受けた事にはビックリしている。実際は、もっと下の学年、１年生とか２年生を教えるのかと勝手に想像していたから、実際に向こうについて自分の持つクラスの年齢層の高さには驚いた。
自分はまだ高校生達の年齢から見ればそこまで離れているわけではなく（つい数年前に高校を卒業したばかりだから）、生徒達を見ていて彼らの暴れたい気持ちとか、授業をスキップしたい気持ちだとか、好きなクラスの女の子に片思いをしてボーっとしてしまう気持ちだとか、皆の気持ちがすごく理解できて、よく生徒達を見ては自分の学生時代を思い出していた。
勿論自分の勉強してきた幼児教育と、その歳の教育は全然異なって、その年齢層の教育経験は一切無い状態での教壇の上は、僕にとって色々と考させられる時間だった。教壇に立ってみてわかる事は数え切れ無いほどたくさんあった。
けれど教壇からは離れたところで、1度もクラスを持ってない幼稚園クラス、１年生、２年生にはかなり好かれ、やはり自分のフィールドはそっちの年齢層なんだなと実感。
