Choosing My Major

Written by Susanna Bowers. Media by Kayla Morton.


If I could choose to start over, would I still be an education major?

education textbook
photo by: Kayla Morton

I’m a senior majoring in elementary education. I chose this major when I came in as a freshman and I’ve stuck with it throughout my college career. I’ve completed all the classes that I’m required to take for this major. I’ve discussed classroom management scenarios, analyzed student work and read a lot of children’s books. I’ve spent hundreds of hours in classrooms throughout the elementary grades watching teachers, looking at how they do their jobs and figuring how I can use what I’m seeing when I’m in their place. Now I’m in the middle of student teaching, trying to figure out how to take all the information I’ve learned and all the memories of teachers I’ve watched and use them to teach twenty-kids what they need to know in second grade. The School of Education provides students with one of the most real-life internships possible; we are the teachers and we are in charge of the classroom.

I’ve never seriously considered changing my major but sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be a different major. My friends who are science majors tell me about the labs they’re doing and I think about how cool it would be to do those experiments too. Ministry majors share amazing stories of people they’ve met and what they’re doing and I wish teaching was a place where it was easy to talk about God. English majors read books and write, something I wish I could do more. So I wonder—knowing what I know about the life of an education major and what I have learned and experienced through my classes—would I still choose to be an education major if I could do it all over again?

students in a classroom
source: eblemcharities.org

When I first chose this major, I decided on it because I loved hanging out with kids and because I was good at explaining things to other people. Becoming an education major wasn’t fulfilling a childhood dream; it was a choice based on what fit with who I was. But now, I can’t wait to get a job as a teacher. I think about how I would set up my classroom, what books I would buy for my library, and how I would teach the kids who walk into my classroom. I get excited when my students understand something or share a story they are writing with me.

If I could do this again, knowing what I know now, I would still choose to be an education major. It’s not because I think everyone should be an education major. Somedays, I would rather sit in an English class than teach reading. Other days, I’d rather discuss theology with my peers than discuss how to measure with a ruler. But most days, I’m happy with what I chose because I spend time with kids and help them understand things, something I knew I was interested in when I started four years ago. I think when you are as young as we are in college, choosing something that we know we’re good at is probably the best strategy for deciding on major. Choosing to be an education major doesn’t mean that I don’t get to do the things that other majors do, it just means that I found something I’m passionate about, something that I could see myself doing after I graduate.

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