Eli Schoeman Story

Eli Schoeman: Equity is providing every student with what they need rather than equality which is providing every student with the same. A good teacher will use equity in their classroom because every student is different and every student needs something different. In elementary school, if students get behind that affects them throughout the rest of their academic careers and into their personal lives. I think education is the foundation of everything, you can't get a good job without a good education, you can't really be a productive citizen without having some degree of knowledge behind you. Having that inequality in the classroom early on and setting those students back can be very detrimental to the rest of their lives. As an elementary school teacher, it's even important that we provide equitable opportunity for our students to learn.

Kaya Hewitt, Eli's mother: Like a lot of young men around his age, he wanted to design comic books and video games. In terms of him becoming a teacher, the inklings of it were there from the very beginning. I remember when he was in third grade, they used to come and get him out of class to have him help with the kindergarteners. Everybody could see how much he loved working with little kids even when he was still a little kid himself. So, the only surprise in any of this for me is that he didn't necessarily choose to focus on preschool. And that he chose elementary education for his degree instead. And in fact, I think, going into college he wasn't even 100% sure that's what he wanted to do even though I felt pretty confident that's what he was always made for. 

Eli Schoeman: Ever since I decided to be a teacher, giving back to my community, is something that really has motivated me to pursue this career and pursue being someone that can make a change. And I feel like being a teacher is gonna put me in the position where I can make a change in not only my community but hopefully in other communities. One memory I have was in second grade, my teacher and my mom were talking during a parent teacher conference, and I remember my teacher saying, Eli is a really bright student. He needs to get out of this school. I remembered those words. It surprised me because I knew I wasn't the best student, but I knew I was pretty bright but the main thing that surprised me was that all my friends and everyone else at school, why didn't they get the chance to go to a new school?  Why weren't they good enough to be provided the same things that I was being provided? It just didn't make sense to me.

Kaya Hewitt: You know, there's always teachers along the way that you remember as a kid, as a parent and his second grade teacher was definitely one of them. She made a point during one of the parent-teacher conferences that Eli was very gifted and that she was almost saddened by the fact that they just weren't going to be able to give him everything that he deserved.  That her time, her energy and her resources were so limited because there were high needs children in the class, budget was very small. They just didn't have all the things that she would love to be able to offer him in terms of being a child who would excel if given more. When he got to middle school age, that's when it really became the biggest challenge of all. We were looking at the options of him going to one of two schools in the Kansas City, Missouri area, and one of them was well known for being the worst school in the district. The worst in terms of grades, the worst in terms of violence and was subsequently shut down the next year.

Eli Schoeman: I think it's crazy how you can drive around a really nice neighborhood and look at a school that looks very visually appealing on the outside but on the inside there's inequality and lack of resources and students falling behind. It just baffles my mind that that can survive in such a nice community around it.

Kaya Hewitt: Some of the challenges we had while Eli was younger and growing up, one his father wasn't around a whole lot. We were separated very early on in his life, but we stayed on good terms. But then he went away to prison when Eli was six or seven and didn't return home until he was in middle school. So, he didn't have a father around although we worked really hard to keep him connected to his dad during that time. Financially it was very difficult for us. I was working but I was also receiving support from the state. The only options we had obviously were public school. So, I worked really hard to try to find both a school that we had access to in terms of being close enough but was also a relatively decent education. It was difficult. They weren't always a good fit especially when he was really little. He would sit on a school bus for literally hours in each direction.

Eli Schoeman: Kids in urban settings, a lot of them either their fathers aren't there, or they don't have that male to look up to. That was a big part of my decision to become a teacher, to be that positive male influence in their life because I think it's really beneficial. Students don't always get that, and I think it's needed. Being someone my students can rely on, just that constant encouragement, constant presence that I can just be there for them if they need me. And just be someone they can talk to about their problems, someone they can talk to about their real life. Being more than just a teacher, almost taking on that parent role for students who might not have that in their life.