A Collage of Motherhood and Teaching

By David M

During a moment of desperation, Maria Furman left a part of her identity behind to bring her family to safety in the United States.

When she arrived, she struggled to support her family and along her way, she encountered experiences during her path of becoming a teacher at Yerba Buena High School.

Before coming to the United States, Furman lived in Russia with her family. She was born into a family of artists and as such, she also grew a fondness for art.

Furman: “I…I was born with it. I was born in a family of artists so I draw as I long as I remember myself. I have my first paintings when I was in drawings, when I was like one, maybe even younger.”

When she got older, she had her first son, who she loved very much. Unexpectedly, a war broke loose where she had lived.

During the war, the military was taking young boys from their home and forcing them into the army. As a mother, Furman didn’t want to lose her son to the war, so she made the hard decision to take her son to the US.

Furman: “I didn’t really want to come. It just happened. I was pressured to go here (US), because there was a war in ___ and I didn’t want my son to go to war. I wanted to bring him—take him out of Russia, to save him from that.

Life was hard at first when she and her family arrived in the US. Furman was the only one that worked and she struggled to support her family. She had no knowledge of how to speak English, which meant that it was difficult for her to find a job. So she had to learn the language in order to find a job and feed her struggling family.

Time passed and Furman became a mother of two. Her second son was born in Massachusetts and just like her first, her second son changed her. Both encouraged her to just be a better person in general.

Furman: “They (her sons) change everything—they change you. You try to be a better person when you have a child.”

After she got better at speaking English, she started to find jobs that incorporated art. At first, she aimed to become a web designer. Unfortunately, due to her age, she couldn’t apply as one.

Furman: “No, I worked in different jobs before I decided to do (teaching)—I tried to do something else, web design. I wanted to do web design but I didn’t find a job; I was too old and over-qualified for that job.”

Through hard work and perseverance, Furman was able to land a job as an art teacher at Yerba Buena High School. Being an artist, she was grateful to find a job since it was hard for an artist to find a financially stable job. Now she could teach others her passion.

Furman: “There was an opening here. I came to YB because they took me [in]. There’s…not many openings for art teachers. So, I’m happy I got something.”

Unfortunately, there’s ups and downs when you have a job. Becoming a teacher meant losing time to be spent with family. While her son was in school, Furman was so busy with work that she wasn’t able to attend any of her son’s Parent-Teacher Conferences or any school event. She regrets not choosing to go to her son’s school-related events.

Furman: “There’s no time for family. When my son was in school, I never went to parent conferences. I never went to talent shows. I never went for anything at his school because I was always here. I started working here and I was so stupid to spend all my time here.”

Something she does now to counteract this is by working harder and faster. By doing this, she’s able to make up for lost time and create new memories with her family.

In addition to not being able to spend time with family, Furman didn’t have any time to be spent with art. You were to think that because she’s an art teacher, she would be able to spend most of her time on art. But in reality, most of her time is spent on grading.

Furman: “On work. On work, yes. Even on creating projects. I have, like, if I do something, I always think about the project, how I teach you so you know more. I would have to have more time for art.”

As stated earlier, jobs come with ups and downs. However, becoming a teacher meant that Furman was able to connect with her students. She loves when her students draw self portraits because it allows her to learn more about her students.

One of her favorite memories of being a teacher at YB was a field trip she went on with her AP Art History class. She enjoyed going with them since they were the perfect example of a class filled with amazing students.

Furman: “It was…I was teaching AP Art History. It was a long time ago, and the students were fantastic. We were so good. We went on field trips and they were so nice and so smart and funny and interesting.”

Fast forward to 2022, and Ms. Furman continues to be a wonderful and amazing teacher. If she went through a time machine to the moment where she started as a teacher, she would tell her younger self to be herself and to not care about what other people say or think about you.

Furman: “Don’t worry about what people tell you. Do what you believe…and like what you are doing.”

After retirement, Furman hopes to travel around the world and continue to draw/paint, and to finally make up for the lost years of devoted memories.