FACULTY VOICE
“Empathy and Acts of Kindness Are Expected Each Day” By Hayden Vick, second grade teacher Here’s perhaps a commonly held opinion: the 2020–2021 school year is simultaneously an interesting, challenging and inspiring time to begin one’s teaching career. Teaching was not on the table whatsoever at the beginning of my college career. Law school was my long-term plan, and deviation from that path did not seem likely. I have vivid memories of assisting my mother in her kindergarten classroom as a child, and this may have laid the foundation for my interest in education. After spending a growing amount of my time throughout college working with children as a classroom volunteer, summer camp counselor and assistant cotillion instructor, I learned that few experiences provide more joy than watching someone achieve a goal you knew they could accomplish. For my final education capstone project in college, I wrote and presented a thesis titled, “The Lack of Men in Early Childhood Education.” In this work, my goal was to highlight and celebrate all the women who impacted my educational journey, while also imparting the need for students to begin seeing both men and women in classrooms starting at an early age. I argued that men and women are equally qualified to teach all grade levels, and, therefore, the lack of men in lower grades is striking. This project definitely pushed me in the direction of K-2 teaching. Whenever I’m asked to share what led me to teaching, two specific experiences come to mind. The first occurred during a college summer in Tuxedo, North Carolina, when I served as the
6 | StC Magazine
