The students were enthusiastic about their young teacher. They seemed undaunted by her age and relative inexperience and greatly appreciative of her ceaseless energy. LeBow develops the curriculum for her weekly class, including discussions, grammar exercises, games and group work.

LeBow handled the puzzled questions--" I thought a nail was the type of a finger?"--like a pro (which her impressive teaching resume confirms). LeBow has taught cello lessons through PBHA's HARMONY (Harvard and Radcliffe Musical Outreach to Neighborhood Youth) and Latin with the Summerbridge Program. This summer, she will teach English literature to disadvantaged sixth and seventh graders in Cambridge.

As I sat awestruck, watching LeBow easily explain the meaning of the phrase "I should" and explicating the difference between finger nails and iron nails, I was struck with one fundamental question that yet remains unanswered.

Considering the skill and effect that students such as LeBow can contribute to the classroom, why is teaching so belittled within the student culture's career appraisals?

To the good fortune of future students, LeBow is currently following a pre-teaching track (She is enrolled in the Undergraduate Teaching Education Program, UTEP). But the vast majority of undergraduates at Harvard who weekly or bi-weekly transform from student to teacher are not necessarily so inclined. According to Assistant Dean for Public Service Judith H. Kidd, about 2,500 students participate in public service each year and at least 75 percent of these students are engaged in some form of tutoring or mentoring program.

We have all heard the self-important Harvard talk of "effecting change to a greater scale." This is a usual response I have heard when students dismiss teaching as a short-term or long-term career possibility. Socially conscious students who nurture idealistic ambitions of saving the world aspire to "large scale change" through careers in law, medicine, government, educational policy or academia.

But, after watching LeBow in action, I am not fully convinced that classroom teaching cannot result in the same degree of wide-scale change. LeBow and the other PEN teachers, according to PEN director Robert F. Luo '00, each teach 12-15 students only one hour each week. Teaching English to immigrants or basic computer literacy to disadvantaged adults can improve the situations of a PEN student's entire family.

Given the incredible aptitude, energy and imagination that we can bring into the classroom, it is a real disservice to our communities that we retire from our budding teaching careers at the age of 21.