Understanding Transcendentalism
by Ava


No matter how well you do in a class it doesn’t take away from the connection you have with the teacher or your experience in that class. I’m not the best at English, but there is one teacher that helps me to see that I could do better. Ms. Brown is one of those teachers for me. At the beginning of the year, I can honestly say that I didn’t like her very much, but as I got to know her more, I noticed that she’s not there to make my life miserable, she’s there to help. She helps me to feel that I can do better, even if I’m not doing well at the time. A lot of times if I’m confused in a subject, she will take the time to come and sit with me and help me understand.
We were assigned a packet on transcendentalism that we had to read and take notes on. The next day we were going to get in groups and discuss what we learned. When I took it home to read, I got halfway through it when I realized I was going to have a hard time understanding what was going on.
“Oh, my God! I don’t know what I just read. Let me go back and read it again.” There was still nothing. The way it was written seemed too advanced for me to comprehend. When I came into class the next day, I asked if she could help me to understand the reading. I was worried that she would just blow it off and tell me to try or that she would have me sit there on my own and struggle through it again. But instead she took time out of the class to sit with me and go over it helping me to learn it. She taught me to go through the packet slowly taking it one sentence at a time; it took me a little while longer than other people in my class, but I got it done and felt as though I did it well.

I still have trouble in that class, but even when my grades aren’t up to where they should be, she doesn’t make me feel dumb. She helps me to think positively. The last quarter I got an F, and I was upset about it, but she told me that if I worked hard and kept trying, I would be able to bring that grade up.
Just recently we got progress reports, and I got a D. Even though that is not where I was hoping it would be, it was a high D that I can easily bring up before the end of the quarter. While English is still one of my hardest subjects, I feel as though I am more understood this year, and I also have more help than I ever have had in an English class before. It’s refreshing to know that even when I’m struggling, I can go to her. She’ll understand, and she’ll know how to help me.