Sarah Kerschgens

EDU 280

Cultural Autobiography

June 2018

Cultural Autobiography

Good Morning Fellow Classmates,

My name is Sarah Kerschgens born Sarah Bryan, I am 44 years old and grew up in Dublin,

Ireland

I grew up in a family consisting of my parents, 3 sisters and our Golden Retriever. We spent our

time in Dublin when we had school, and in the summers we spent our time either at our beach

house or with our Grandparents on our Farm. Looking back, I was one of the lucky children, that

grew up in a little bubble, we went to Church every Sunday in our pretty dresses, attended our

local Protestant Church Elementary School, my class was made up of myself and three

classmates so as I child I really enjoyed having a teacher basically all to myself and as our

classes were so small Grade 1, 2 and 3 were all taught in the same classroom, this meant we

could switch over to another table if the subject the older or younger children were learning was

more interesting we could participate. I then went on to attend an all girls protestant school. The

whole school consisted of 100 children, as Ireland is a prominently Catholic country, all State

schools were Catholic and as we were Protestant we attended one of the few Protestant

Schools which is the reason why it was so small.

 Back then there was a huge Cultural difference between the Catholics and the

Protestants. The Protestants were the landowners of Ireland and I grew up being told we were

different to them. Our school consisted of the children of “Who is Who” in Ireland, and also

many Princesses from the Middle East or my best friend who's father owned the Spanish Airline

Iberia. Basically I had a very protected upbringing. We never went hungry, we had all the toys

we needed and grew up in a nice 40 room house. After skipping 2 grades in High School, I

graduated school when I was still 15 years old. I tried attending college then but it was not for

me, I then worked for my father but when I was 18 years old I was sick of living in a “bubble”

and being told who to marry , that I left home and moved to Germany. I left Ireland with $900

and very little German. Once in Germany I started of being a waitress but quickly discovered

this was not what I wanted, and we were brought up being told we could achieve whatever we

wanted, so I went back to school, learned to speak, write and read German fluently and then I

worked my way up in a mobile phone business. Germany was so different culturally to Ireland,

you never knew who had money, or who didn't. It is funny, in Ireland you could tell by the socks

that the guys wore or the perm that the girls had which class they came from !. In 2005 I started

teaching English as a foreign Language to small children between the ages of 1,5 and 14. It was

a Franchise business, I quickly took over the Franchise for Southern Germany and had over

200 teachers working for me , I loved teaching and running the business but after 10 years of

teaching as I called them my “iPad Kids”, I started working with the Rotary Club and the Catholic

Church in the South of Germany, here I was able to teach in underprivileged Kindergartens,

here I found my spot. I loved teaching these children, they were so appreciative and sucked up

all the knowledge they were given, and it was here I learned that not every child had the same

protected childhood that I had and thought every child had.

 Wow , writing this has brought back memories but I have also realized how thankfully

things have changed so much. I am glad of my upbringing, it has brought me and my sisters so

much stability, and I like seeing how my nieces still go of to Church every Sunday in their

Sunday Best !. Now I am ready for the next chapter in my life, I hope to become a Special

Education teacher here in Las Vegas.