Kelsey Valdez

I loved high school, I loved elementary school, I tolerated middle school, because, honestly,
does anyone like anything at that point in their life? Some of my best memories were in the halls of
Clear Creek High School. It's where I made friends that I still speak to on a daily basis and see
regularly. I think this is sometimes a unique viewpoint, but I also think that it could become the rule not
the exception with the right educational plan. In this paper I'm going to tell you how I fell in love with
education by telling you about the effects of my personal and cultural background throughout my
childhood, adolescence, and adulthood and any critical events involving diversity and by telling you
about the impact my teachers have had on me throughout my schooling.
To begin, I grew up in Evergreen, Colorado. Quite possibly one of the whitest places on earth.
It's a small suburb of Denver, although some residents would be thoroughly offended if you called it
that, that is home to the upper and upper middle classes. My cultural background was that of my
surroundings although my dad's side of the family is Mexican and my mom's side is Native American.
Because I was raised this way, I never really identified with anything other than the white culture and
my schooling was not effected in any way.
I think my educators assumed that everyone was raised the same way I was because we learned
through the scope of the average white American. Although, I find it hard to specifically recall
elementary education, I do remember that when I was taught things from the white perspective in
middle and high school, nothing came to a shock to me, so I can assume that that is the way I had been
taught from childhood. We were told the stories of the white American. On one hand, however, I think
that the teachers' assumptions that we were all raised the same way evened our playing fields. We were
all treated the same way and given the same opportunities. No one gender, social class, or race was
given any kind of preferential treatment. Adulthood and being in college, on the other hand, opened my
eyes to new cultures. Not everyone came from the same background and not all of my professors have
been American. These different viewpoints not only helped to educate me on different culture, but I

think curriculums have become more culturally inclusive.

Furthermore, my school district was very small, so I graduated with a good majority of kids
from my preschool class. I think this contributed a lot to the high school's homogeneity. For example,
young kids don't pay attention to race or ethnicity, so when you go to school and spend time in most of
your classes with the same kids you grew up with, they don't notice these things because they never
have. I think the first time anyone noticed that I was even a little bit ethnic was in middle school, I had
just joined a new gymnastics team and one of the girls asked me what my ethnicity was because I
physically don't strongly resemble any one race. I heard it a few more times in high school when
friends' moms would say things like, Oh, you're so exotic looking. But, my lack of looking white
never effected my schooling. I was slightly different in appearance, but otherwise incredibly relateable;
I'm a nice girl, I was the captain of the gymnastics team and of the soccer team, I got good grades, I
knew how to have a good time with my friends, and ultimately I could carry on a conversation with
anybody. I think this affects my views on the purpose of schooling because, to me, it shows how small
class sizes, respect, hard work, and being friendly can blur racial lines and create a more accepting
atmosphere. College has reinforced these ideas because every day in my classes I see conversation
happening between multiple ethnic groups that has spawned from scholarly respect and being friendly.
Like I said, I grew up in a homogenous community that didn't really judge based on race
because the culture of the community was the same; there was no reason to judge someone based on
how they looked because they shared the same viewpoints. Because of this, I never had any critical
incidents with diversity. I was taught to respect the people around me regardless of their ethnicity. I
wasn't raised to see race or judge different people.
The teachers I had in high school subscribed to the idea that everyone was equal and they were
going to be treated equally. They weren't afraid of offending anyone because the school operated on a
system of mutual respect. We knew that our teachers genuinely cared about us and because of that, we
weren't offended when they joked around with us. We could banter back and forth with them and it was

all in good fun. This kind of relationship was what made my education so effective; it created an
environment that made students feel safe. Teachers were treated with respect but were also treated as
colleagues and mentors. There was a time and a place for joking around and we all understood that. My
teachers in high school have taught me not only about their subjects but about life. This is what made
me want to become a teacher. I learned so much from the past experiences of my teachers; their stories
and advice. I wanted to be able to do for others what they did for me. For instance, I had an English
teacher that convinced me I was smart enough to be a good writer even when I thought I was horrible. I
want to be that for someone. But, by far my best teacher was one that hardly ever spent class time
teaching from a book. He would teach us about life, connect whatever we were learning to how it could
effect or enrich our lives. We always joked that his class wasn't a science class, but a class of life
lessons. He was tough but he was fair and every day you walked out of his class feeling like you
learned something. That's the kind of educator I want to be. I want to be a high school teacher because I
have never had better educators than the ones I had in high school, and I have never learned more.
To sum up, I never lived in a diverse community. I went to school with people of the same
background racially and socio economically. But still, I learned that race didn't matter. Education
doesn't only happen in the classroom. We must strive in our every day lives to be accepting and to
surround ourselves with people that elevate this acceptance. I want to educate because I want to be able
to reach a generation and show them that race doesn't matter and to enrich their lives in way that makes
their education memorable.