I sat down with Beth Stoddard, current student at Gonzaga University to ask about her education throughout her life time. The purpose of this interview was to get another input on an educational experience. I quickly learned that Beth has attended Catholic school since Kindergarten, but perhaps one of the most significant experiences occurred in high school.
Beth attended Bellarmine Preparatory School in Tacoma, Washington. While this was a private, Jesuit high school, Beth was not slow to reveal that she did not think this was the best education she could have gotten. In a school of no more than 1,000 students, she thought she would get a much more personal experience in and out of the classroom. One of the critical moments in Beth’s experience occurred in her junior year. It was her third period AP US History class. Beth was excited to take this class in September – thinking it would be a great way for her to show the progress she had made academically the first two years and develop lasting relationships with her teachers due to the small class size. “I was so wrong” Beth says about her experience. Not only did she feel like she was overlooked by her teacher, she never received any support. “I reached out, but even when he could see I was struggling, I felt no additional support.” To this day, Beth credits her dislike for History to this one class. The struggles in this class and the lack of support “completely turned me off” to the whole subject area, Beth stated.
After questioning Beth about the experience of this class some more, I could tell she was clearly distraught and decided to ask about some positive aspects of her private education. “There was one connection with a teacher that I made in high school that is extremely opposite of my US History experience. “The funny thing is, one of the most impactful teachers at Bellarmine was not even my teacher.” When I asked what Beth meant about this she explained that this teacher, “Mrs. O” as Beth called her, led a retreat Beth helped plan. At this point in Beth’s experience, she was really struggling. She chose not to go into detail on this, but she revealed that this teacher offered her support in all aspects of her life – social, academic, emotional, and spiritual. I decided to wrap up this interview after talking for an hour, I asked Beth what she thought of her experience overall. “Overall, I am thankful for the education I had. While I am not a fan of every single experience, it was teachers like Mrs. O that made the experience worthwhile. She showed me that there is more to life and I will forever be for her time, attention, and care.”
-Joshua Bradley