Why do I keep doing this thing called teaching? For the lightbulbs, for the moment of magic when the tide turns. For the teary thank you's from the Moms.
I started at 17. I was a sleep away camp counselor. At a YMCA camp. All the kids were from Brooklyn. Very new to my white bread life.
Several of those kids still stay with me. Broken hearts and broken spirits. The easy breezy kids didn't hold my attention. It was the hard cases that pulled me in and got ahold of me. Started college in the fall rethinking my French major.
So what could I do for a living that would allow me to work with these kinds of kids. Psychologist? Takes too long.
Occupational Therapist? One look at the Anatomy and Physiology text told that was a no starter.
Well, I could be a teacher. Oh Lord, How lame. Now thirty years later, I wouldn't have done it any other way. Even though I come home many nights ranting and raving.
Jump if you please.
I have worked in horrible schools and wonderful schools, I have worked with brilliant colleagues and idiots.
I have worked with darling children and children that I had to work very hard to remember that they were lovable too.
I have NEVER made GOOD money. I have chosen another path. The non profit path rather than the public option.
HEE HEE.
What keeps me in the field and most teachers in the field beyond the need to earn our daily bread is the satisfaction with the work that we do.
The seven month old with Cerebral Palsy who figured out that she could do for herself and there was no holding her back. The 2 year old with Autism who for the first time looked his mom dead in the eye and told her he wanted to eat. The Mom who calls me 7 years later to tell me that she has gone back to school to become a teacher because of me.
What do teachers need? Oh Lordy! Just once, I wish someone would watch me teach and ask if my kids are excited. I wish they would ask the parents if their kids are doing better.
I wish that everyone understood that it is not about how many rote memorized facts a child can spit back on a test. It is about this, "Are they intrigued by the idea of learning things?" Rote learning can help you file things alphabetically. It can allow you to recite the Lord's prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance without having any idea what you are talking about.
But if we can teach children to be intrigued and excited about learning , then the whole world opens up...Forever, until the day they die.
But we can't excite them if we don't have the time and the freedom and the materials to do things that are exciting. Then we bore them to death and education is something to run from as quick as you can.
AHH, but I live for the magic of the lightbulb moment. And I keep going back for more. Sucker.