| The Schechter Saga, Book 3, Chapter 1: Looking back and ahead | for everyone |
In less than two weeks I start my fifth decade in teaching. Little did I know when my churning stomach and I said, "Good morning" to my first class of freshmen for English in Room 200 (the room disappeared long before the building that housed it) where I would end up, starting my 41st year. I could never have predicted the joys and rewards of what was, I must admit, an accidental career.
(With apologies to those who know the story) I was, at best, an indifferent college student who changed majors four times (none were education; in fact, late in my junior year at UM-St. Louis {I was a French major at the time}, all of the other class members had espoused teaching as their career goal. My response, "I don't know, but it won't be teaching.")
I even considered joining my (future) wife in the nursing field, but couldn't bear the thought of more school and science classes (groan). So this (now) history major, faced with the limited career options of selling encyclopedias or insurance, started taking classes for teaching certification. I benefitted from several fortuitous circumstances. First, standards were low at the time (my GPA wouldn't qualify today). Second, I had a great student-teaching experience at McCluer High School (on the evening shift, teaching 10th grade world history from about noon to 6:30); my cooperating teacher took more interest cruising with the Moline Acres Police than his classroom and left me alone to learn how to teach. The final piece of luck was that his students didn't want to do anything that might cause him to spend any more time in the classroom than he had to, so I avoided some typical student-teaching traps.
Equally lucky for me, Hancock Place standards weren't all that high either (and probably candidates with French and English certification not that common) so I even managed to find a job and start a career that has rewarded me beyond measure, helped me grow as a person, and allowed me to give back to my profession and students.
One thing I've learned: the expression "normal year" is an oxymoron. In the ed-game there are no normal years; heck, there aren't even that many normal days! But I go to school/work every day looking forward to the journey that I take with my students, sharing and learning together. I've taught every age of middle and high school, English, French, American and world history, political science, psychology, law, business law! (at a time when I knew nothing about either business OR law), journalism, drama, freshman (college) composition, masters classes for Webster College, and, of course, did school counseling; I've coached softball, school publications, mock trial teams, directed drama productions. I was also a teaching profession "true believer," dedicated to empowering teachers so we could do our jobs better and earn respect as professionals.
Although not all of these efforts yielded equal results, I tried to approach all of them with equal enthusiasm, tried to do or make things better. As I begin my third year at Schechter looking forward to working with my "sixers" (and, once more into the breach, advising yet another yearbook -- #14, but who's counting?), I'm just as excited, but not quite as nervous (or maybe my stomach is so well insulated now that I don't notice the flip-flops quite as much) as that day in 1971.
Stay tuned. Let the meetings begin!
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