College Admission Essay

By Allison Katz

Ms. Kanfer was the reason why I liked fifth grade. Some mornings she would march into the classroom with a stern look on her face and sit quietly down at her desk. We all knew what this meant: we were in trouble. Everyone would scramble to get to their seats, fold their hands in their laps, and get busy on some kind of work. After about a minute of silence, just when the tension in the air was palpable, she would move just a little. Kids would fidget and shake their knees, preparing themselves for a scolding. And then, out of nowhere, she’d cross her eyes, put her hands up at her ears, and make the funniest fish face we had ever seen. The classroom would erupt with laughter.

Her enthusiasm carried over into her teaching. Social Studies, Science, and even Math were suddenly liberated from their musty old place in academia and brought into Ms. Kanfer’s colorful world of personalized worksheets, hands-on experiments, and engaging class discussions. For the first time ever, learning was not a task; it was something to look forward to. If any of us were lagging behind in a subject, Ms. Kanfer knew how to make us feel like it was our duty to catch up. She could be firm—even intimidating at times—but during her lessons, when it mattered most, she knew how to have a good time.

I knew that no teacher could ever match up Ms. Kanfer. Yet interestingly enough, it was not until our second encounter, when I was 17 years old, that I realized how much she had inspired me.

In my senior year of high school, I interned with the Town Clerk of North Hempstead, managing a research project on the history of the school system. There, I got the opportunity to work with original letters and documents from over a century ago. I was entrusted with a letter to the Great Neck Superintendent of Schools from the Nassau County School Commissioner, written in 1907, enacting changes based on an 1874 law that mandated education for all children up to fourteen years old. I was also responsible for reviewing attendance records on the kids who were impacted by this law. Many times, a note from their parents was included, explaining that their child could not come to school because they could not afford shoes or because they needed him to look after his brothers and sisters. It was fascinating to see how the history I’ve learned about in books applied to real people’s lives and to work with primary historical documents that many people do not get the chance to see.

The challenge of the internship was that, when it was finished, I had to turn all of the documents I had reviewed into a presentation, which I would then deliver to an elementary school class. I spent weeks compiling data, creating visuals, and practicing my delivery.

However, when all of my research was complete, I realized that I had only prepared my presentation in theory; I had never thought about how I would actually deliver the information, or the feeling I would get when I entered the classroom. With one day left in my internship, I began to panic. Not only was I unprepared, but I was having trouble mentally placing myself in the role of a teacher. What if I screwed something up? Would the kids notice? Would they laugh at me? Public speaking had never been my forte.

The day of the presentation, I drove over to an elementary school I had never seen before, taking a few minutes to myself before exiting the car. “You can do this” I told myself. When I entered the school, I suddenly had a rush of nostalgia as I pictured myself back in Ms. Kanfer’s classroom, transfixed by her unique style of teaching. That was just the motivation I needed. When I entered the classroom, I immediately began imitating Ms. Kanfer’s style, greeting the students with great excitement but a note of authority in my voice.

The presentation went over fabulously. At first the students seemed bored by the mention of “historical documents”; but when they were able to see how students in the 1890s were very similar to them except for the difficult conditions in which they lived, their features lit up with sympathy. Afterwards, I had the distinct feeling that my hard work had paid off. The positive input the students gave me encouraged me in knowing that my job was worthwhile.

In fact, my presentation was so well-received that I got permission to give a similar talk at my own elementary school. This time, instead of teaching just one class, I had to teach all the fourth grade classes in the school in a filled auditorium. As I nervously set up the presentation and the number of people in the room grew, I looked up and saw Ms. Kanfer enter the room with her own class of fourth grade students. I got pins and needles for a moment as I realized that, after all these years, our roles had been reversed. For the next couple of hours, Ms. Kanfer became my pupil.

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