Many cuts have been made in school’s budget in the past few years, but many still aspire to become teachers; some trying to change the way schools are being treated. However, one student teacher has a different way to approach the problem.

Jacob Bremer, currently a student teacher a Community high school, is attending the University of Michigan and studying for a teaching degree. Jacob wants to become a teacher, but has an extra goal in mind. The Bay City student teacher wants to go into education policy with knowledge of the classroom in his arsenal.

“A lot of people who do policy now for education, they’ve never been in a classroom before” Says Jacob. “And it really does not make sense to me that they’re writing what kids should be learning, yet they’ve never stepped foot in a classroom before.” Jacob has been all around the area, student teaching at Greenhills, Southfield Lathera, and Scarlett Middle School. But he finds that Community has a different feel to it.

“Community is very different” Says Jacob. “One of the first things I noticed, no pun intended, it is a big community. I noticed that a lot of kids interact with each other, and it doesn’t really matter there grade. You’re all in it together.” Jacob felt that high school needed to be more connected, not just based on social rings and grade levels. In Jacob’s opinion, Community provided both.

Although Jacob is thrilled to work with any grade of child, he claims to feel more drawn towards the secondary schools. “The plan for me is to get exposed to as many grades as possible” Says Jacob. “Although I am focusing on secondary, more high school level, I think any grade is a good experience and you can bring something to the table with it.”

Jacob Bremer came from a sprawling family of teachers, from his mother, to his uncle, to his two aunts that taught as professors at Michigan State. “I’ve always been around education” Said Jacob. “The good and the bad of it, so I’ve always been heavily influenced by it. It was just one of those things that I knew I wanted to do.”

“The biggest influential teacher was my mother. She was my first and second grade teacher.” Jacob continued. “I had a ton of teachers in high school, and grade school that really played a huge influence on me. Mr. Bremer of course, he doesn’t just want to teach children. He wants to change the way they learn.

“I don’t necessarily want to change what the kids are learning, I think what common core and race to the top that all those states have, I think they’re pretty accurate, that is what the kids should be learning.” Says Jacob. “What I really want to change is not necessarily what the kids are learning but how they’re learning. I think that’s the biggest problem right now is that schools aren’t creating engagement and with the standards that we have right now, it reduces the probability of students to want to be in school, to want to participate, just to want to further their education. If we can change some of the policy on how we teach and what teachers are allowed to do with students, there is such a huge gray area, I think that needs to get defined a little bit more, through policy and that is one way we could do that.”

Jacob Bremer has taken steps a bit farther from his family’s line of work. But, he is not deterred and strives towards his goal of turning the classroom in the student’s favor.