A Noble Profession

When we were little, my sister and I would play school. This often happened when it was a rainy afternoon. There was a very short period of time when our garage was clear enough to house the car. On a rainy afternoon, Mom might pull the car out of the garage and we'd set up school. Both of us wanted to be the teacher. This was mostly because the teacher was the one who got to actually do things. The student had to just sit there and do what the teacher said. I never did like my older sister to boss me around. But she would usually get to be the teacher because she 1) thought up the game and 2) she was older. Teaching was just the funnest!

 

Well, as we grew up, Pat went off to UCLA on a full scholarship. She finished her four year stint in three years with a degree in I don't really know what. After a few years working in the social work area, she decided to enter law school. She emerged with a Doctor of Jurisprudence and began working as a lawyer.

The year after she left for UCLA, I went off to Las Vegas to get married, then went on to have babies and eventually start my life in Portland, Oregon. After my divorce, I started working for Portland Public Schools in their Special Education Department as an aide. I fell in love with teaching! I knew I should have been able to be the teacher way back when! Three years later I started college in order to become a Special Education teacher. That goal didn't pan-out; instead, I became a college instructor. Not a day went by for the next 30 years that I didn't love this teaching gig.

Here's my take on teaching. I believe teaching is one of the most noble of professions. To be a teacher is to have the privilege of sharing ideas and knowledge to others. To help guide students, advise them, work with them and then see the spark of excitement start to ignite their imaginations and creativity. To be a teacher is to wear your passion, dedication, and love of others on your sleeve for all to see. When asked what I do for a living, I was always able to say with pride, “I am a teacher.”

 

The most important part of being a teacher is bringing her passion to the students. It is caring about their learning simply because you care about their learning. If this passion slips, it is time to leave for there is nothing sadder than an old curmudgeon still teaching because he doesn’t know what else to do. 

 

A teacher is someone who holds this love in her heart, who wants others to succeed because she cares about what they do, how they go, what they learn. Not long ago I read an article in the Oregonian about a man who won the NAACP Award for excellence. He was a high school shop teacher and was nominated by one of his students. The student said he deserved this award, not only because he was a good teacher but because he went out of his way to help this student through personal problems and decisions, through the teacher’s guidance. As I read this, I knew he was a teacher at heart.

For nearly 30 years I was privileged to stand in front of students and presented them with information, theory, new skills, shine up rusty skills, and in fact, given them a piece of myself. And for nearly 30 years I had continually been infused with energy from these people, learning from them in more depth than they can ever possibly know.

 

Like me, my sister eventually began teaching Law for the University of La Verne. She also ran the Paralegal Program there. Not that Law isn't a noble profession, she did finally find her passion in teaching. Must have been from all the training she had on those rainy days in the garage, dictating what I had to do as her student ;) 

And so it goes
peace~~~