허 교사는 우선 한 미국 명문대학의 입학 담당자 얘기부터 전한다. “학생들의 지원 서류를 볼 때 재미있는 건 에세이뿐이라는 얘기를 해요. 그런데 아버지가 뭐 하고 어떻게 자라왔다는 얘기들을 보게 되면 정말 지겹다는 거죠.” 그러나 지난해 2월쯤 학생들에게 텅 빈 3학년 선배들의 교실을 보며 쓰고 싶은 얘기를 자유롭게 써보라고 했을 때 허 교사가 느낀 것은 ‘벽’이었다. 대부분 사회 비판적인 내용을 담았을 뿐 개인의 이야기는 없었다.
University of Illinois 영문학과
대한민국 10대 대기업 자녀들 수업 및 명문보딩 도움 (1995년 ~ 1997년)
전 대원외고 해외 유학반 수석교사 (1998년~2003년)
전 대치동 스티븐아카데미 원장 (2003년~ 2018년)
현 Independent Counselor
현 sf스티븐아카데미 원장 (2018년~현재)
SAT and ACT Essay
General High School Writing
College Application Essays
"Right before a test, I tell students to “Do your average!” and not their “best.” My experience with students in test prep is that they are often concerned about the “show,” the test day, and not the day-to-day learning that they do at home or at school. The ones most disappointed with their performance on test day are the ones who did less than they thought they are capable of. Doing their “average” then is quite good and most all students are quite good in our assessment, theirs and mine, in the course of our lessons together.
The improvements we have gained in the classroom are victories and a cause for happy self-reflection. All students have them, and I am always surprised that they all do. The ones that need help, at times, I have talked with outside of class, driven them home imploring them to try harder, and not do the self-destructive things that hurt them as a person first and as a student second.
All young people improve with such care and mentoring from teachers. This is what we try to instill in our students at Steven Academy. Test prep, after all, is shooting for numbers or letters, but it’s the effort and the motivation to improve one’s self that best result in a satisfying academic achievement. Contented students do their best anyway because they know what that feeling is, so asking them to do their “average” is asking them to show what they are made of in such day-to-day quiet moments of reflection and care in what they do. Finding that in students is the key for us as educators, I believe. It is that “average” we seek in our students when we teach, and what we get out, the student’s personal “average” on a day to shine."