home away from home

I hold an amazing and amazingly strange job. I have tried to explain the complexity of what I do several times and have never really been able to capture it. I think that the reason for this is that we have all been on the receiving end. We were all students at one point or another, and we think that our experience as students some how equates to what a teacher does. I can tell you that for several serious reasons, it doesn't. Not the least of these is that teaching has changed so drastically since I have become one. For example, I have never taught a single lesson from a text book. Actually, I have never even opened one in class. I am pretty sure, that is all that my teachers in high school ever did... the face of teaching and academia is changing fast and is racing to improve, making it a boiling pot of pressure and stress, and also rewards.

There are things to love about teaching, and things that make you want to hide under rocks. I guess that is the same for any career. But it seems that both sides of that equation are magnified in teaching. For example, I absolutely love working with kids and the rewards that come from benefitting them in their education are really priceless. I can go home most days knowing that I made the world directly around me a better place. That really is saying something.

One of the most frustrating aspects of teaching completely blindsided me. The "public" aspect of this job is incredible. I never thought that teaching is holding a public office and is really given to the whims of public opinion. I simply don't function that way. I am not a politician and I have no aspirations or skills in that arena. Even now, writing in this blog, I am monitoring my words because they are being made known to the public and may be levered against me someday. In my eight years of teaching, I really have never had that happen to me, but I see it all the time.

I could go on about the pay, but that is pretty commonly known. The only oar that I will dip in here is that most people see teaching as a job with tons of vacation time. Teaching has no vacation time. We are never paid for our vacations, not even one day. We, instead, are forced to take time off without pay. How many people would like to see that in their careers. "Hey have a couple weeks off for some down time, but yeah, we aren't going to pay you for those. OK?"

I have worked at many places in my life. I came to teaching late: in my thirties. I love what I do. I really love it. But it is in no way easy. In the eight years I have been a teacher, I have never had a year when at least one of the teachers around me hasn't left or been let go for some reason or another. It is a complex and high stress job for far less than average pay.

Well, I guess that that is a good first foray into that arena. I didn't really even touch the complexities of it all, but I feel that that could go on for far too long for one post. I love what I do, in all of its difficulty and satisfaction. It is a wrestling match with the now for the future and I do love that fight.

db