After 18 years of trying to find her passion, senior Hannah Barnett finally found something she never thought she would be doing: teaching.
“I really love kids,” Barnett said. “Teaching to me is more than just providing kids with an education. It’s being a role model, being a caring person and being there for them.
Barnett’s love for teaching came last summer when she began mentoring a group of students.
“I would walk in the classroom and with them not even knowing me; they would give me hugs and look up to me,” Barnett said. “I got to be the person for the kids who didn’t have a person to love them the way they needed to. And things like this makes teaching them worth while.”
Not being able to understand what teachers teach is something Barnett experienced throughout her life. She understands the struggles students go through and how not understanding can take a toll on self-esteem and happiness.
“From personal experience, I know that poor self-esteem develops as a child,” Barnett said. “If a child has grown up without anyone there to help them, then they believe they are worthless. I can see which students need that extra push, and who knows if that child is getting the encouragement they need at home.”
Through Barnett’s orientation to teaching class, she was able to teach a kindergarten class at Bryant Elementary. She taught kindergarten because she believes this is the most influential time a teacher can have on students.
“Everyone remembers their kindergarten teacher because they made a really big impact,” Barnett said. “This is the first year they are away from home and someone else is caring for them. Who that person is very vital.”
Barnett wants to stay in state to go to college, but wants to eventually go out of state to teach.
“I want to go to A-State to major in elementary education and minor in art because I want to be an elementary art teacher,” Barnett said. “I want to go to South Carolina to teach because I will want to be in the south, but I want to go somewhere where I could have more opportunities and have different aspects than Arkansas.”
No matter where Barnett goes to teach, she wants to always enrich her students to have high morals and standards to make them a better person in society, not to only fill them with textbook knowledge.
“Teaching a class or a subject is an add-on to me,” Barnett said. “A teacher is someone who teaches the right morals and has a one-on-one relationship with their students. The teachers I remember are those who knew me, the ones who knew me on a personal level. It’s always more than just teaching, it’s making a difference in my students’ lives.”
