Romeo Ponsaran: Teacher
 Salary: $30,000 - $65,000
According to Romeo Ponsaran, teaching is one of the most difficult and rewarding jobs.
“You can work miracles or not do anything at all,” Ponsaran says.
A sixth-grade teacher for Oakland Unified School District’s Claremont Middle School for two years, Ponsaron brings to his work his experience in the nonprofit sector, namely at Jane Adams Resource Corporation and Americorps in Chicago. He also taught “at-risk” students at an alternative high school for two years in Chicago.
Ponsaron says it was a natural progression to go into teaching. Unlike nonprofits, schools provide him with an environment where he can have “complete control” to infuse the curriculum with multicultural studies. He is a new teacher with new ideas.
“They’re trying to get test scores up,” Ponsaron says. “Multicultural studies fall by the wayside … If you want to be a great teacher and not just a good teacher, you have to teach it all.”
Ponsaron teaches “the oppression unit,” a term he coined. The ethnic studies course starts with community mapping, and issues of identity. Ponsaron challenges his class to question their identities, begin dialogues about ethnic relations, and propose tangible solutions to the problems. Students are also encouraged to get involved with community organizations and other youth groups.
“You have to train kids to go to school and go to work,” he says, “but the multicultural education and social justice [reveals] how reality is constructed. That’s part of education.”
He adds: “To get kids to the point where they can articulate that in a way that’s meaningful to them, that’s beautiful.”
Ponsaron admits professionals do not go into teaching for monetary payoffs. In Alameda Unified School District, teachers start at $30,000 - $32,000; Berkeley and Oakland, $37,000 - $38,000. Salaries increase $1,000 - $2,000 the first five years. In those districts, salaries cap at $60,000 - $65,000, with some 20 years experience.
Ponsaron, a 27-year-old Filipino American, says he hopes to see more people of color getting into teaching. After African Americans, he points out, Asian Americans are the least represented in the teaching profession.
“Teaching is still not an acceptable profession,” Ponsaron says. “Especially [for] first-generation Asian Americans. Their parents struggled to get to this country. To see their children make less than they did, that doesn’t make sense. They want them to get high paying jobs.”
But to Ponsaron, the compensation is huge. It comes from be able to impact a young person’s life.
“If you like being involved in something that changes people’s lives, that changes you, teaching is therapy for free,” Ponsaran says. |
