Voices

A Teacher’s Voice: From Surviving to Thriving By Rosemary Tiffany

Rosemary Tiffany is a bilingual kindergarten teacher at Lewis & Clark Elementary in Wenatchee, Washington, who knows firsthand the challenges her students face. The daughter of migrant workers, she grew up in the Yakima Valley and was a struggling student, a high school dropout, and teen parent. Through sheer determination, she earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees and was recognized as the North Central ESD Regional Teacher of the Year. In addition to teaching, Tiffany gives professional development trainings in cultural awareness throughout Washington state.

I’m a second language learner. I started school not being able to speak English, which was difficult for me because I went through most of my elementary and intermediate years really hating school—I mean really hating it with a passion. I didn’t understand the language, and learning English was difficult for me because my family was very large and we were migrant farm workers, so we didn’t stay in one spot for very long.

I came from a family of 12 and no one had graduated. My mom never went to school, my dad had maybe a second-grade education. They were all working in the fields, so there was no one really to help me with schoolwork.

My mom always kind of pushed us to go to school, but I invented all kinds of illnesses to stay home. One day the truancy officer came and knocked on my door and said, “I know you’re in there. I saw you through the window.” So, he actually forced me to get in the car and took me to school and it was kind of embarrassing. After that, I tried to go to school even though I didn’t like it.

Somehow I stuck with it, but I did get married as a junior in high school and dropped out for a little bit. Then, I decided that school was more fun than working in the field. So, I went back to school and I did graduate, amazingly. I can remember in my biology class in high school, the teacher was just kind of talking to the whole class—kind of an informal conversation—and I said, “I think I’m going to get an A this time on my test,” because I knew I had been working hard. And he said, “Well, I don’t expect you to.” He said, “I don’t think you’ll ever amount to anything.” He truly said those words! Those words hurt a lot. And I’m the type of person that if you say, “You can’t,” I’ll show you I can. I think maybe in a way that was meant to happen to me because it really pushed me in the other direction.

[After graduating,] I started working as a paraprofessional. I did that for five years: I was doing just about the same amount of work as a teacher and not getting the pay, and there were so many things I didn’t like that I was seeing. I decided to try to go to college. A really neat program came along—the Migrant Extended Degree program: They would pay for the years it would take, but it meant that I would work as a parapro and then go to school at night. I did that for two years, but decided that I really wanted to get done sooner, so I quit the program and went to college on my own. I was treated really well there. I think they kind of looked at me like an exchange student because I was different—there weren’t many Latinos there at that time.

The thing that happened to me at college is I [finally] began to understand the language. It took me not five years, not seven years—as most programs tell you—but it took me at least 10 or more years to really understand the academic language and to be able to comprehend what I was doing.

I went on to become a teacher and later got my master’s degree in bilingual education/ESL from Heritage College in Toppenish. I went on to the Chelan School District and taught there for nine years as their migrant/ bilingual teacher. I was teaching [my students] to learn English but at the same time I was giving them a lot of Spanish instruction to support them. I had kids telling me, “I can’t do it. I can’t. English is too hard. I can’t learn it.” What helped is that I had gone through that experience and I was able to say, “If I can learn it, you can learn it. And I know it’s hard but you will learn it eventually.”

My goal as a teacher is: I want my kids to know that I care for them and that I want them to have a good education. That is important to me. If they know that you care, they’ll work harder for you.

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