My Corner for Education

I arrived in Canada close to the end of October in 1990. By the time we started the immigration application process and went through the wedding plan, Christmas was then quickly approaching. I did not have any time at all to prepare for either job or school application. The deadline for university application is usually at the end of December in Ontario. I missed the deadline so that I could not attend any university until a year later in September. I finally applied for universities a year later and spent another half a year for the application process. Most of the time was spent on waiting and waiting for admission notice to arrive. By the time I was ready to go to the Faculty of Education, two years had passed.

After my first visit to a university admission officer, I did not feel optimistic at all about getting into teaching in Ontario. Maybe the officer was right, I thought. Toronto was the hub for all the Chinese immigrants who tried to get out Hong Kong before 1997. Most of the immigrants landed in Toronto. I thought maybe the University of Toronto would be accepting more ethnic students because of the increasing Chinese population. Anyway, a year later, I applied for three universities after I visited a few and figured out how the university application process worked.

Meanwhile, I took a TOEFL test and started taking evening credit courses at a university in the neighboring city. Unfortunately, this particular one did not offer any degree in Education. Instead, I took psychology, which is also an area of interest to me. I also went to adult high school learning centre during the daytime to take high school credits for some social studies courses to familiarize myself better with the political and social systems here. I was trying to keep myself busy throughout the days because I had too much idle time sitting at home and doing nothing. Joblessness drove me nuts!

Finally the university notice arrived in spring 1992, and I was on the waiting list for U of T. (Sigh!) I was not accepted by another university in Toronto which took me three hours to get there for an interview. (Thank God!) Surprisingly, I was accepted by the university that I had a terrible encounter with the admission officer. I didn’t really want to go to that university, but I guess life always has a twisted turn. I ended up going there because I didn’t have time to wait for U of T to go through the list. I could only count the eggs in my basket. I, however, considered myself lucky to be able to get accepted at all. My in-laws told me that I should accept the offer and go to the university just to prove that officer wrong. So, I did!

The university I chose was a great one for me in terms of location and transportation. This university had a satellite campus in the same town where I was taking university credits for psychology. I was quite familiar with the busing system by then. Even though it was farther away from me, but I didn’t mind getting up early and spending an hour and a half waiting for buses. I was lucky enough to get in a Faculty of Education, which is like winning a lottery in my view!

I enjoyed the time at the Faculty of Education, which gave me a different perspective about the education system in Ontario. I knew I would be a better teacher if I could cherry pick the better parts of the two education systems to plan for my class and help my students. I knew I had to learn a lot within a short period of time at the Faculty. There were many things to learn at the Faculty of Education, because I was not just learning about the education theory and practice there. In fact, I was trying to absorb every little tiny bit of life skills and the essence of western culture that I had missed out through my childhood to the adulthood. It may be easy to learn knowledge in a short period of time, but to absorb a new culture is not like going to a fast food restaurant. It requires one to immerse oneself in the cultural environment over a long period of time in order to fully acquire the essence of the culture.

I was preparing to become an elementary school teacher. An elementary school teacher is different from an ESL teacher whose only focus is on the language. An elementary teacher has to be prepared to teach students from kindergarten to grade six in all subjects, including science, social studies, math, language, arts, music, and possibly physical education. I didn’t want to make a fool out of myself in front of the students later on. I had to prepare myself to understand even the very basic common sense or common knowledge for the life here. Seriously! I was literally hopping and going through a hectic time to transform myself to adapt to Canadian life and culture as fast as I could. I remember, at that time, people sometimes asked me if I came to Canada since I was little. They were often surprised to find out that I just landed in Canada less than three years. It was not easy, but I guess I did fool some of them.

In my view, the difference between studying at a grad school and at the Faculty of Education is really the theory and application. When I was taking courses for my master degree later on, I spent most of my time reading research papers and linking research to my teaching practice. At the Faculty of Education, however, we didn’t just learn about the theory. Most of the time, we focused on subject themes and lesson planning, classroom management and teaching strategies. The truth of the matter is that teachers are dealing with little human beings and we have to be very skilled at applying all strategies, developed based on theoretical research, to run the classroom. Teaching is not really a job for bookish persons. In fact, it requires good interpersonal and problem solving skills to function in a school setting. That is why teaching is not just a job; it is a calling for someone who is able to withstand all obstacles dealing with curriculum, students and parents.

I am passionate about education. We educators are in school to teach because we want to teach and in hope that we can make a difference on another group of human beings. I always believe that I am destined to be a teacher to help people. That was the reason I jumped on the idea of participating in the radio broadcast when I heard of the opportunity to teach on the air in Taiwan. I think that is also the reason why, instead of working at a nice private school, I’d rather work in a less privileged public school in a needy neighborhood in the city. I guess my passion for social justice is evidently transferred over to my teaching career as well.

I spent a year at the Faculty of Education. I might be lacking basic common knowledge, but I did try my best and graduated a year later in 1993 with my second Bachelor degree in Education. I was then certified to teach anywhere in Ontario. Thank God! After the age of 30 and another life in Taiwan, I finally got the ticket to get into a profession here in Canada. In a society where certification of a skill or a profession is highly valued, I thought my degree is a ticket to the door of a school. The happiness did not stay for long though. The next problem was: who would hire me, a teacher whose mother tongue is not English?