Mr. Monson has been teaching for 12 years, 8 years before being in Buffalo. He used to be just a history teacher, but this year, he teaches both history and business.
But what was his life like before being in Buffalo? When he first went to college, he had no idea what to pick for his major. “People told me that the best way to make money was computer science, so I majored in it for two years, and I hated it.” Monson took one history class during his time majoring in computer science, and his professor saw potential in him, recommending him to be a teacher instead of an engineer. Following the professor’s recommendation, Monson took an education class, and he loved it. He then switched his major to education, but when he thought more about being a teacher, Monson told himself, “If I was gonna teach something, and if it was something I liked, it would be history.”
However, before this year, he was only a business teacher in Buffalo for about 4 years before finally teaching his first year of history.
When he first came to Buffalo, he knew he wanted to teach here. At first, he went to the middle school, but because there were no openings there, he came to the high school. “There were no openings for history teachers, but the interviewers encouraged history teachers to apply for business positions,” so that’s exactly what he did. He also minored in business in college. “I was never trained to teach those classes, but the business community is so supportive.” Monson used his personal experience from prior knowledge with a family business of over 70 years.
Last year, when he was teaching the class CIS College Academic Prep (CAP), there was a student who was talking about their history course. While they were at it, Monson overheard the conversation and wanted to get into it. “You know what I majored in college?” Monson asked, the student guessed business, since he was a business teacher, but when he revealed that he majored in history. It was not only a shock to the student but to the whole table in the class. The student asked why he didn’t teach it, and Monson only gave a brief explanation: “I can’t. I really do want to teach it, I love it, and I miss teaching it.”
But now, being a teacher of both history and business, Monson finally gets to teach what’s familiar and what’s interesting to him. “When I am teaching both subjects, I’m not working as closely with the business community as before.”
Monson states that the most challenging part of teaching both subjects is the transition between classes. “I don’t really care what I teach, as long as I teach. Within reason, of course. But it’s nice to get into history now because I can go back into helping with projects and teaching something in his comfort zone.”
Coming from him, it’s essential to realize it doesn’t matter how much money you make, how successful you are, or how smart you are for your career. Instead of finding your career, your career will find you, maybe not like Mr. Monson. As long as you try, you will find a job that won’t just be seen as something to just get money from, but rather be a part of your life that you will enjoy doing.
