This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Dec. 26, 2012 - When Destiny Esper returned this fall as an English teacher to Normandy Middle School, where she once was a student, she had training from Teach for America and an idealistic view of what she could accomplish in the classroom.
After nearly a semester of teaching, her view of the profession may be a little more realistic, but her enthusiasm seems as strong as ever.
“I’m not going to lie and say that every day, my students stand up and shout out the answers,” she told the Beacon in a follow-up interview to a story in August. “But I do think things are going pretty well. I have a good relationship with my students and my colleagues.
“I was surprised by the amount of time I spend doing different things and not even realizing it. And I didn’t expect to have strong feelings for my students so quickly.”
Esper left the Normandy School District as valedictorian of her high school class. She studied journalism and public relations in college, but when she spent her junior year abroad in Ghana, she suddenly thought that the classroom might be the best spot for her career.
Teach for America decided to assign her to the St. Louis area, and she successfully lobbied to come back to Normandy. Her career began at age 22, at a time that has not been the easiest for the district, which will lose its state accreditation on Jan. 1.
“That was a negative surprise,” she said. “Obviously, there is a stigma that comes with that, and because this is MY school district, it’s been kind of a tough blow to take. But I think we’re getting past that.”
Instead of dwelling on that bad news, Esper is concentrating on the new knowledge and new skills she is helping her students acquire, day by day.
Take, for example, the research papers they began working on recently, comparing the customs and cultures of different countries to those of the United States. In the computer lab, she said, one student came up to her excited about a discovery.
“He said, ‘Miss E.! Miss E.! Did you know there’s a country called Wales, and it’s spelled without the H? It’s completely weird, but you say it the same way.’
“That’s interesting to me. Not every kid is going to know there’s a country called Wales. They may know France or China or Japan. For me to discover that there was a country called Wales, that was a good experience for me.”
Besides such academic moments, there have been personal ones that Esper appreciates as well.
“I was walking out the door of the classroom to go to lunch,” she said, “and three of my best and most loving female students asked me to have lunch with them.
“Even if I wanted to have lunch with my colleagues, I went to lunch with them because they are so sweet, because they want to have a teacher who cares about them. It was like I have 70 or 80 kids of my own.”
Balancing realistic expectations with young idealism isn’t always easy, but Esper said she has managed to master the trick – at least so far.
“I wouldn’t say I lacked realistic ideas at the beginning,” she said. “But being a teacher for as long as I’ve taught now has put a lot of different things into perspective for me. I’m definitely more realistic about what can be done, by when. But I’m still extremely enthusiastic and really love my students.”
Even, she said, at the end of a long school day when she has to attend a hastily called faculty meeting that takes up more time than she had expected.
“I didn’t realize they would take so long,” Esper said.