Friends middle school Teacher Candidate, J Warren reflects on the expectations they brought into the Friends Teacher Preparation Program, the surprises that have shaped their journey, and the ways the Friends community has supported their growth. It’s a thoughtful, heartfelt look into what it truly means to learn to teach.

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Before I started the Teacher Preparation Program (TPP) at Friends, I thought a lot about what the experience might be like. I wondered how it would feel to be back in middle school where dynamic social and emotional worlds collide with exposure to new knowledge and ideas about the world. I knew I would be challenged by the demands of life within the program, especially considering the loss in funding for Teacher Candidates (TCs) like me. I would have the chance to dissolve the boundaries of my comfort zone, I would begin to learn the skills of a teacher, and I would form many new lasting and impactful relationships. I was looking forward to it all. But it has turned out to be what I didn’t anticipate about the TC experience that I value most: the opportunity to look closely and carefully at how individual schools, educators, and students work within and against systems to support the needs of the younger generations as they gain perspective, autonomy, and knowledge of themselves within the world around them. I believe that the genuine support fostered by the Friends community is why I am able to engage in this thinking because I, like the students, am seen and treated as an individual whose unique ideas and ways of learning are respected and valued. 

Several weeks ago during our student-led parent-teacher conferences, one parent asked me if I had a favorite subject to teach. After thinking about it for a moment, I said that it’s not an individual subject but all of the listening and teaching moments outside of instruction that I enjoy the most. Over the course of the year so far, I’ve made it a point to connect with and learn about every student to determine how I can cater my support to them. I get to do this when we’re outside on breaks, on our camping trip and field trips, in classes, in the halls, during study halls, as a substitute teacher, and as a TC observing and co-teaching.

Recently, I was struck by a passage that captures a foundational aspect of my philosophy toward supporting young people both within and outside of the education system in Ken Robinson’s book Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education (2015): 

Robinson says, “[a]s human beings, we all live in two worlds. There is the world that exists whether or not you exist. It was there before you came into it, and it will be there when you have gone. This is the world of objects, events, and other people; it is the world around you. There is another world that exists only because you exist: the private world of your own thoughts, feelings, and perceptions, the world within you. This world came into being when you did, and it will cease when you do. We only know the world around us through the world within us, through the senses by which we perceive it and the ideas by which we make sense of it.” 

What I’ve found to be true about the educational environment at Friends is that both worlds are valued and explored. Teachers are dedicated to helping young people learn about the world around them while elevating voices and perspectives often disregarded. And we continually help students explore the world within them by creating space for expression, experimentation, and evolution. I get to see this while I learn to plan and deliver curriculum with my mentor teachers, as I join staff meetings where we discuss changes in student behavior and how best to support them, when I join other teachers and students in a game or dance, or when I sit with and listen to a student who’s having a tough day. 

I’m only three months into this immersive and challenging experience, and I know that the community I’ve joined at Friends is giving me the support, openness, and opportunities for growth that I value and hoped it would.

If you’d like to learn more about me and my journey as a TC at Friends, you can do so here.