From My Love of Books to My Love of Teaching

Books captured my attention from a young age. Growing up poor in Mexico, with the exception of an old Bible we did not have any books in the house. Perhaps it was this scarcity of books in my surroundings that made me view books as a rarity, treasures to be valued. To me at the point books were precious objects that where housed in large and imposing libraries and other church and government buildings. In fact the very structure of the public library in my home town added to the mystery and splendor I had imbued them in my imagination.

My family’s hometown is an old colonial city in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. The public library, although, small was housed in an old but colossal building dating back to the late 17th century. In fact, the stone steps that led one into the library were so worn with the centuries old foot traffic that each step had a concave indentation that had been worn out with age. Inside the library there were shelves of old leather bound volumes that were only accessible to adults and to the librarians. Although they had a small children’s books section it was the older leather bound books that were prohibited to me that most intrigued me. Given the austere renaissance style of the building I was fascinated by what the contents of the those books might contained. In my imagination I assumed that perhaps some of them contained secrets, magic incantations that could transform the world.

Unfortunate, shortly after discovering the library my family moved back to the United States and I was never able to find out exactly what those books contained. However, arriving in Chicago I soon discovered the Harold Washington Library and my curiosity for books was not only sparked again but was fuel but the quantity of books available to me due their accessibility. As I moved through the shelves I wanted to read everything although I did not know where to begin. Yet is was exactly at that point that I discovered a small section of books classified as classics. I told myself that I would begin there. There were many books that I wanted to read, but my English skills were still not up to par for the task. Therefore at the age of twelve I made a list of the books I wanted to read. I used this list to not only help me keep track of what I wanted to read but also as an aspirational list. It was there and then that I began to use books not only to fulfill my immense curiosity about the world but also as a way improve myself. To me included improving my English language skills.

To fulfill this latter goal I kept a meticulous lists of vocabulary words I did not know. I kept lists of quotes the resonated with me or told me something new about the world. Those were truly wonderful years. However, these habits began to break as I advanced in high school. With the greater academic demand I was under and the social pressures around me I stopped reading with the same fervor and concentration of my early years. In fact, throughout my high school years reading became a chore. Annoyed with school work I decided to join to Marine Corps after high school. My high school experience had taught me to loath reading and writing. By joining the military I wanted to break away from all academic endeavors. However, to my surprise it was in the military, while forward deployed in Iraq that my love for books returned.

Perhaps it was the remoteness of being in foreign and hostile land that made me long for the feeling of safety and serenity I first experience in the old library in Mexico. As service members we used to receive “care packages” from caring civilians back in the United States. They mostly sent essentials such as socks, underwear, shaving cream, disinfecting wipes, sweets, and teddy bears, but to my literature starved mind they also sent books. I adored those books; even the bad ones. And it was in that way that my love for literature returned.

After leaving the Marine Corps I went to college. First it was only because I wanted to obtain a good paying job. After my high school experience with literature I did not want to study English or literature again. I figured that if I was going to read I was simply going to read for my own enjoyment. At that point I joined a trade school in order to obtain a certification to become a diesel mechanic. It was a great career choice and I truly enjoyed the atmosphere of comradeship that existed between fellow mechanics. It reminded me the comradeship that I had in the Marine Corps. However, I felt that something was still missing. During that last semester of training as a diesel mechanic I decided to take an English literature class. And just like that I knew exactly what was missing from my life. I realized then that more than a paycheck I was seeking the intellectual stimulation that only reading and analyzing books can provide. Although I decided to finish my diesel mechanic certification program, I knew then and there that I wanted to continue studying. I knew that my true calling was in academia and in Comparative Literature in particular.

Switching gears I joined the English department in my community college in order to get my associates degree in English. I was so enthusiastic about reading, and discussing literature again that my professors soon took notice. Surprise by my efficiency with writing analytical essays they recommended to work at the school’s Learning Center as and English tutor. It was there that I gain my first experiences as a tutor and as a future educator. It was an eyeopening experience because I discovered that I not only loved literature and writing but I also loved sharing that love with others.

As I tutor in a community college in the city of Los Angeles I had a wide array of students from multiple academic and cultural backgrounds. It was impressive to see how every student processed written texts differently. As I tutor we had to read Tutoring Writing by McAndrew and Registad. We learned about the things a tutor is supposed to be as well as the things a tutor is not supposed to be. We learned about the cognitive and physical writing processes. We were encouraged approach tutoring through the student centered approach. Time and again we were reminded that were not there to supplant the teacher but rather assist the student in developing their ideas and aiding them in finding logical ways to structure those ideas in order to better support their thesis or main idea. It was an invigorating and chaotic experience. In fact it was the chaos theory that McArndrew and Registad mentioned that was the most useful to me as a tutor. For as a tutor I saw with my own eyes precisely what Tutoring Writing mentions in regards to the ever changing environment of tutoring. Everyday there were new students with different needs and there was no way we possibly use a single rubric to attend to each and every student. What we had to do, as the writers wonderfully explain, is develop a “repertoire of skills” that we could use with every changing situation.

However, what most surprised me as tutor was quantity of students that were more concerned with what Tutoring Writing describes as Low Order Concerns (LOC) that deal primarily with the mechanics of writing as opposed with the High Order Concerns (HOC) that deal the thesis, structure, information and tone. To me as a tutor and writer were fundamental because without them you don’t really have much of an essay. My worst experiences as a tutor was when as student brought me a piece of writing that was due in hours for proofreading and that piece of writing was missing clarity of thesis or it demonstrated inadequate supportive arguments, or it did not have a logical and cohesive structure. Those were writing problems that required time to correct so I always encourage to my tutees to come to me from the moment they were in the process of pre-writing.
It was those experiences as a tutor that informed as to the deficiencies that many college undergrads face though their first years of college. To me those were deficiencies that should have been addressed why they were still in high school. It is for that reason that I chose to become an English high school teacher after I graduated from college.

However, what most surprised me as tutor was quantity of students that were more concerned with what Tutoring Writing describes as Low Order Concerns (LOC) that deal primarily with the mechanics of writing as opposed with the High Order Concerns (HOC) that deal the thesis, structure, information and tone. To me as a tutor and writer were fundamental because without them you don’t really have much of an essay. My worst experiences as a tutor was when as student brought me a piece of writing that was due in hours for proofreading and that piece of writing was missing clarity of thesis or it demonstrated inadequate supportive arguments, or it did not have a logical and cohesive structure. Those were writing problems that required time to correct so I always encourage to my tutees to come to me from the moment they were in the process of prewriting.
It was those experiences as a tutor that informed as to the deficiencies that many college undergrads face though their first years of college. To me those were deficiencies that should have been addressed why they were still in high school. It is for that reason that I chose to become an English high school teacher after I graduated from college.