Teaching: The Family Business

I teach an introduction to teaching as a career class and last night we had a guest speaker that got a response from one of my students that gave me insight into this future teacher that I did not have in these five weeks of reading her commentaries and spending time creating relationships. It is a simple thing but it took me on my own memory journey.

K described herself as a third-generation teacher.

I always told people that teaching is the family business even though not many of my generation of cousins and my siblings are teachers, but I too am a third-generation teacher. If I count my great-grandfather who was a UCC minister as a teacher, then my teaching genealogy goes back to 1900.

I am writing this for no other reason than to acknowledge the teachers in my own family and speak their names. I hope others do the same.

1st generation:

Lincoln Benjamin Kaumeheiwa, Kahu, Waiola Church, Lahaina, Maui

Ritsuko Okimoto Ah Sing, Teacher, Headmistress, Proprieter, Pioneer Sewing School, Lahaina, Maui

2nd generation:

Rose Ah Sing Yamada, math teacher, administrator, director of office of instructional services, educational consultant, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi

Muriel Mililani Ah Sing Hughes, Ph.D., English teacher, administrator, university lecturer, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi island

3rd generation:

Nancy Sturm, PhD, professor, researcher, UCLA, California

Janice Shimizu, preschool teacher, Hilo

Comments

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