Listen

Watch

Can you tell us about yourself? 

"My name is Lauren Higgins. I teach at Furnace Middle School. My role here at our school is a computer teacher for the 7th graders. We are located on the south shore in Massachusetts in a town called Marshfield and I have been here for 18 years."

Why did you start a career in education?

"As far as I can remember I have always wanted to be a teacher. My father was a teacher. Always just couldn't see myself doing any other job."

If you could have any other job what would it be and why?

"If I could do any other job it would be a social worker for children. I just like working with kids and helping those kids that are less fortunate than others and making sure they have a fair share."

How are kids different now than 30 years ago?

"Kids now are more on a schedule. They are very visual learners. Everything is scheduled for them. They are very focused on media and social media and I think they need more time to get out and just experience life as opposed to watching it on the screen."

How is teaching different now than 30 years ago?

 "Basically you are less creative as a teacher. You teach for the standardize testings. You don't have a lot of time in your curriculum to do more creative things outside of the standards. I find that teachers are more stressed due to various meetings and commitments that are required of them from their administration."

What would you tell someone who wants to become a teacher?

 "There's nothing more rewarding than being an educator but you have to understand it is not the same as it used to be maybe when you were in school as there are more responsibilities and there are more issues to deal with in amongst your regular day. You don't get to be creative as you would like to be. You don't have much time to yourself as you may need but I still think it is the most rewarding career you can get into."

What is one thing you would change to help kids learn better?

"I would take away standardize testing. I think kids need to see the more creativity. When I grew up, we didn't have standardize testing and everybody, as far as I know, is doing fine and I think kids nowadays are so stressed because of everything that is throw on them to preform well on these standardized testing that are given a couple of times a year that they miss out on a lot of activities that they could be doing to learn more."