Future lawyers Tread Into Classrooms
Karen, Phoebe, and Matthew (Fellow 17-18) all graduated from law schools in Hong Kong. And yet, they chose to spend their first year uplifting grassroots students. Unlike how others may think, the “magic” they experienced in the classroom is irreplaceable.
Karen (left), Phoebe (center) and Matthew (right) graduated from law and joined Teach For Hong Kong and are going to step into grassroots classrooms
As September quickly approaches, many will start a new chapter of their life. Students will walk into their new classrooms nervously but excitedly. At the same time, 3 law graduates will walk into the classroom not as students, but as teachers, as they joined Teach For Hong Kong’s Fellowship.
Karen Tsang, Matthew Kwok, and Phoebe Cheng (Fellow 17-18) graduated from law school in the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the City University of Hong Kong respectively, while Karen and Phoebe had already completed their Postgraduate Certificate in Laws. However, before pursuing their careers in law, they joined Teach For Hong Kong’s Fellowship program and commit themselves to serve in grassroots schools for a year.
More Rewards than Sacrifices
During the year, they receive significantly lower salaries than regular teachers. Although it is not a convention decision among their peers, the three all believe that the teaching experience will be rewarding and outweigh the sacrifices.
Phoebe says, “One year isn’t that long. When looking back ten years from now, if I did not have a good experience this year, it would only be a very short time in my life. But if it turned out to be inspiring and rewarding, I believe it would impact the rest of my life.”
When talking about their Fellowship experience, the trio can't stop sharing their gains and challenges
Phoebe was motivated to join the Fellowship program to lend a helping hand to underprivileged students. “To be fair, I don’t think students from elite schools need me since they already possess high learning motivation,” Phoebe said, “I want to help students with lower learning motivation.”
Sharing Past Experience to Uplift Underprivileged Students
Grassroots students often lack learning motivation. Matthew also wrestled with It when he was a student.
“Before Form 3, I never took learning English seriously because I didn’t have an interest in it,” said Matthew, ”I did not recognize its importance. I worked really hard in form 3 and beyond to catch up.”
Looking back, Matthew thinks he lacked learning motivation because he didn’t realize the purpose behind learning. He lacked a clear career goal and pathway. He believes that his cohort of 24 Fellows, with their diverse background and experience, along with school teachers, can help inspire students more effectively, thus helping them to establish clearer goals.
Matthew reflecting on his days as students, and how might he help now that he is a teacher
Planting the Seeds of Kindness
Karen, on the other hand, believes that academics are not everything.
“Many people consider those who score high on standardized tests as good students, but I don’t think so,” Tsang believes. She thinks that education should not only be about academics but also nurturing students how to live with others. Karen’s greatest ambition is to help students to find a motivating goal.
“When I was teaching a lesson about careers, one student said ‘I don’t care what job I do, I just want to make a lot of money’,” Karen recalls, “I hope to help students discover themselves and inspire them to give back to the community, not just to care about making money. Although they are just primary school students, I still wanted to plant the seeds of kindness inside them.”
Karen believes, more than academics, students need to have a kind heart
The “magical” teaching experience
During the two weeks of trial teaching, they have developed classroom management skills and experienced the "magic" in the classrooms. Phoebe fondly remembers the time when she started to strike a conversation with an unmotivated student about her pencil case after class.
“The student started to share her stationery with me, and I attempted to recognize the cartoon characters imprinted on her stationery,” Phoebe remembers, “Since then, she started to like talking to me and became proactive in answering questions during class.”
As the new school year is right around the corner, the three admit that they are a little bit nervous, but also looking forward to it.
This article is originally published in HK01. The excerpt above is an English abstract of the original Chinese article. Please click here for the original article.