Story and photos by ANDRE MONTOYA

Originally, Matthew Okabe did not see himself becoming a teacher. However, now that he has dedicated over a decade of his life to teaching, he knows that he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Teaching is valuable because it really is an art,” Okabe said in an email interview. “Kids know who really cares. Without teachers, we would be in for a very bleak future.”

His passion for working with kids started when he took a job at a daycare center, when he was in high school.

“I loved helping during homework time and playing various games with the kids,” Okabe said.

When he went to college, he majored in business, but after a year he knew it wasn’t for him. Inspired by his interactions with the kids at the daycare, Okabe decided to pursue teaching.

Okabe earned a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Brigham Young University and a master’s degree in Education in Curriculum Studies with an emphasis on being a reading specialist from the University of Hawai’i, Manoa.

He started teaching the fourth and fifth grades at Mountain View Elementary School in the Glendale neighborhood of Salt Lake City in 2010 and taught sixth grade for one year at Glendale Middle School.

Although Okabe is a seasoned educator, the onset of the coronavirus pandemic created new challenges for schools. But Okabe’s passion for teaching and his students has kept him steady throughout.

Since he began teaching, Okabe has gained the admiration of his students and his colleagues.

“He is just a lovable guy,” said Tina Misaka, a fellow teacher at Mountain View Elementary, in a Zoom interview. “He is awesome and willing to go the extra mile.”

Misaka, who teaches dance, recalled struggling to convince students to get out of their comfort zone and move. To her surprise, Okabe began dancing himself.

“He was really good,” Misaka said. “By having a teacher participate, the kids can see that they can also be vulnerable that way. It was awesome that he was willing to do that.”

In a newsletter posted in March 2022, Salt Lake City School District Superintendent Timothy Gadson III compared the district and its community to a village, saying, “We are a village, and when we work together toward a common goal, providing a world-class education for our children, we will attain success.”

“When we look at a village, we have everyone within that community working toward a collective goal of our school district. That goal should be the success and the achievement of our students,” Gadson said in a Zoom interview. “The teachers are at the ground level. They’re mentoring students, they’re nurturing them making sure students have exactly what they need to contribute to their success.”

During the coronavirus pandemic, teachers have faced an incredible strain. They have had to act as enforcers, encouraging students to social distance or wear their masks. Additionally, they’ve had to adapt to the constant switching between distanced and in-person learning, all on top of their many other responsibilities as educators.

“I think teachers are human like anyone else and that load can become too overwhelming, it can become too much,” Gadson said. “We sometimes forget they’re human, we think that they’re superhuman, but we’ve got to respect the human side of the teacher.”

According to a poll conducted by GBAO Strategies on behalf of the National Education Association in January 2022, the bulk of stress educators are undergoing currently can be attributed to the new slew of challenges the coronavirus pandemic has caused.

That same poll found that more than half of educators are looking to leave their professions earlier than they had initially thought.

There is a community on TikTok that Okabe dubs “Teacher Quit Tok” that showcases teachers who have quit their jobs and found prosperity elsewhere. Though Okabe knows he’s only seeing the videos because of TikTok’s algorithm, he does not see himself quitting his job.

“I don’t feel as though I could leave the profession,” Okabe said.

Gadson has praised the perseverance of teachers as they have navigated the new challenges the pandemic has caused.

“When they had to go online, many of our teachers had not taught online before and it was not a part of their programs when they were in college. But they ramped up, they did exactly what they needed to do to ensure learning continued with students,” Gadson said.

Okabe recalled the struggles that occurred in the early days of the pandemic, such as students not having access to materials, computers, or even the internet at home.

“It was a Friday the 13th and it was just a couple of weeks before spring break,” Okabe said, when remembering the day in March 2020 that Salt Lake City School District closed schools. “We were not ready to transition our classrooms to a full online model. Because of that, there was a steep learning curve for teachers and students.”

Misaka, the dance teacher, who was also adapting to the new remote way of teaching at the time, recalled that Okabe would visit the homes of students who were falling behind to ensure they were doing all right.

“Kids, especially in this area [Glendale] aren’t coming to school and they’re not excited about school because they’ve been home,” Misaka said. “He’s helping them find independence and confidence so that they can do well themselves.”

Now that he can teach in-person again, Okabe is happy and grateful to interact with his students face-to-face and is optimistic about the future.

“I don’t feel as though I could leave the profession. I genuinely enjoy interacting with my students. I enjoy teaching them, helping them learn, watching them grow,” Okabe said. “Sounds corny … sure. But having the opportunity to impact this many lives in a meaningful way is an amazing opportunity that I don’t see in many professions.”

Filed under: Asian American, Education, Mental Health, Profiles, SLC's West Side |