What I Learned

Sometimes I chastise myself for taking the easy road and becoming a teacher. Isn't that what everyone thinks? When I was in college and majoring in business, I scoffed at the assignments of my friends in the college of education. What? You are making yet another bulletin board? Last week I spent 40 hours researching, evaluating and restructuring the marketing department of a major corporation! I was going out into the world and becoming a career woman. I was going to travel the world. I was going to wear designer clothes with heels to camouflage the fact that I looked 15. Wait, I am getting off on a tangent.

My point is deep down I was a little envious of their bulletin boards and their passion for something that seemed selfless. When the opportunity presented itself for me to begin teaching, my response was I wanted to do it so I could be with my own children each day; but I didn't really like other children in general. Next to motherhood, teaching gave me the biggest blessing in my life. The relationship formed when teaching a child, the exchange of eye contact and yes, the affection received from young children when I present them with new experiences brings about an immediate love affair.

Back to my opening statement; it is not an easy road. Teaching takes a greater emotional and physical toll on my life than any other thing I have to deal with. It is harder than being a mother to my own children, harder than keeping up with my own household duties and takes more emotional and physical energy than being a good spouse. In teaching and caring for young children, I am often their primary disciplinarian. More times than not, this has been minimal in their life for any number of reasons. Not only am I presenting discipline to them for the first time, but also to their parents. To many each year, I am a social worker intervening in family and ethical situations and making decisions that I often feel inadequate to make. Love and affection are in short supply in our culture and nurturing acceptance of others has been my primary goal as a teacher. I teach four year olds, (on purpose), because I believe nurturing is my strength and this is the age to best offer that.

I don't intend to make teaching sound so gloomy. In college I wanted to be a woman on the move with a challenging life. Well, I am definetly on the move. And everyday is a new challenge. The challenges are greater than any other I could have imagined. They make my job worth going to everyday and my life about something other than me. There is always something new to learn, something everyday to laugh about, something everyday to cry about and something to celebrate.