Now that my four children are grown and gone and all
but the last have finished college, I am amazed that
the
first three have all chosen to become teachers.
Jeanne received her master’s degree in art at Yale
University and teaches art at the California College
of Art in Oakland, California and at Creative Growth,
a center where various art forms are taught to physically
and mentally challenged adults.
Julia received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin — Stevens
Point, and is teaching at-risk youth, ages 17-24 in the Fresh Start program in
Portage. Her students earn their high school equivalency diploma under her tutelage.
Michael, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin — Madison, is the assistant
director for the UW marching band and teaches orchestra at the university.
Why am I surprised they’ve all become teachers? Because I, for one, tried
it and couldn’t survive. Teaching is one of the most difficult, stressful
and challenging careers one could attempt. I believe in order to be a teacher
one must possess something magical.
Not only buckets full of talent from God himself, but something else. Pixie dust?
Magic beans? Iron will? I don’t know what it is exactly.
All I know is that I don’t have it.
I’m not a teacher. Unless you count teaching four children the rudiments
of walking, talking, bathroom etiquette, swimming and cleaning up after themselves.
Oh, it’s true, I do teach one, two or five-day writing workshops here and
there. But that’s not really being a teacher.
That’s being on stage and gushing for a few hours to a very appreciative
audience, all of whom are electric with wanting to learn. That’s flash-in-the-pan
easy teaching.
The kind of teachers I mean are classroom teachers, kindergarten through college.
Day-in-and-day-out teachers.
Thirty-five years ago I was in the midst of my last year in college studying
diligently to become a high school English teacher, even though I never really
wanted to teach. But my mother kept asking me all through college, “What
are you going to do with that English degree if you don’t teach?” She
and Dad were footing half of the tuition, room, board and book bills, so a dollar-sign-infested
guilt trip forced me to take all those awful education courses. Philosophy of
education, problems of teaching English, history and principles of secondary
education, principles of teaching grammar. I suffered through them all.
Those courses were supposed to turn me on to educating the young and light a
fire under me so I could inspire two or three generations of youngsters. I hated
each and every one of those methods courses. I also hated student teaching so
much that I dropped out before the end of the first week.
I feared going out in the world with nothing in my hand but a parchment diploma
and a bachelor’s degree in English that hadn’t prepared me for much
else but teaching. But most of all I hated facing my mother with her inevitable, “What
are you going to do now?”
I would have made a terrible teacher. I wouldn’t have liked preparing lesson
plan after nightly lesson plan. I wouldn’t have liked fretting over how
to make each class a memorable experience. I wouldn’t have liked staying
up late grading papers or spending my weekends preparing for next week, or going
on field trips or chaperoning dances and games. I wouldn’t have known how
to handle the problems today’s youngsters face, let alone reach them, guide
them, motivate them.
Back in the late 60s when I graduated from college, it was easy to find a teaching
job. But I’m glad I reached into the depths of my soul in time and realized
that teaching was better left to the more saintly types. Teaching is the profession
for the infinitely patient, the inherently just, the abundantly kind, the intrinsically
dedicated and the hardest workers God has put on this earth.
When I dropped out of student teaching, one of my professors ask me why I gave
up such a noble profession. “It’s simple,” I said. “I
just don’t have what it takes.”
As the school year ends all I can say is thank you to all the teachers who guided
me through 16-plus years of schooling. Thank you to all the teachers who are
teaching today, creating young people who will stand for something because they
know something.
God bless all teachers who do have what it takes. Thank you.
(Lorenz, an art-of-living writer and speaker, is one of the top contributors
in the country to the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books with stories
in 16 of them. She can be contacted at <patricialorenz@juno.com>.) |
