Steve Walker: Born to Teach!

Here we see future teacher Steve Walker back in 1966. He was a member of "FTA" ("Future Teachers of America").

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

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I am a teacher -- and proud of it. Never do I let that fact go to my head in the form of any feeling of superiority or of "being really smart"...

Rather, I relish the joy of it! What was it that brought me to love teaching so deeply? Let me take you back..

As I talked about in Installment 96 back on August 30, 2013, walking into Mrs. Rachel Tschirner's first grade class in September of 1954 brought me into a world of happiness, opportunity, challenge, and beauty.

Similarly, when I explained how wonderful my second year of elementary school had been (Installment 108 -- released on September 11, 2013), I noted that Miss Thelma Koblitz is my favorite among all of the teachers I have had in my life. She was stern in every way -- and knew how to motivate her pupils by "using both the carrot and the stick". She rewarded my enthusiasm and hard work with privileges, with freedom -- and most importantly, with a sense of responsibility.

When I was in the fifth grade I was so, so very in love with my teacher Emma Fisher. She worked hard teaching us how to write in beautiful cursive script -- and she wept with emotion as she told us about Rachel Carson's epic work "The Sea Around Us". Miss Fisher awoke in me a deep feeling for preserving "the natural world" -- which I now refer to as "Earth".

Other good teachers followed -- along with a few for whom I have little good to say. But the "bad teachers" did nothing to dampen my enthusiasm for the art and science of teaching. In high school I joined a club known as

"Future Teachers of America" (FTA). I planned to teach everything: languages, mathematics, science, physical education -- all subjects.

When I entered university I found I had a knack for learning languages. I decided that I would focus on teaching languages as a career. I obtained a bachelors degree in French. Just as I was ready to start a career as a French teacher, I had become intensely interested in learning the Chinese and Japanese languages. I put my plans to start teaching French on hold and accepted an English teaching position in Japan.

It was now 1974.

Exactly 47 years ago (back in mid-June of 1974), I had just arrived in Japan and was getting accustomed not only to living in Japan -- but also to working for a certain English Conversation School chain in Tokyo. I eagerly went through that company's instructor training program -- and did my best to follow the guidelines in the manual they provided...

But it wasn't long before my enthusiasm gave way to disappointment. I realized that the organization I was working for was not there to serve either its students or its instructors -- but to line the pockets of the owner and his cronies. I did my best to teach under these very difficult circumstances -- and my schedule was packed every day with students clamoring for my sessions.

When I realized that I did not have enough linguistics training in my experience, I opted out of renewing my contract after a little more than a year -- and I headed for Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan in the United States, where I enrolled in a Masters Degree program in applied linguistics.

A little more than two years later, my MA diploma in hand, I was hired as an English language instructor at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the Al-Hofuf branch of King Faisal University in Saudi Arabia. How my students loved me and how I loved them! They marveled at my enthusiasm and responded with enthusiasm of their own.

After leaving my position at King Faisal University, I spent a year in the state of Oregon teaching English as A Second Language at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon. Then, in 1981, I again went to Japan to teach. But this time I started my own school -- and to this day (40 years later), I still have that school. We now specialize, of course, in Jingles training. But we teach general English communication skills as well.

Steve Walker

Earthsaver and Jingles Creator

© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.