back with the dutch / ranting about my job

Ok, so I have been a bit slack and haven't posted for a while. I didn't want to miss out on quality time with my family while I was in the US. Wouldn't that be a shame if I spent time writing on the blog when I could have been spending time with my niece? I would be viewed as a horrid uncle indeed.

Even though I have been back for almost a week, I have been entertaining myself with a newfound toy - another computer game. Anyone who knows me is keenly aware that I do enjoy 'blowing things up' on my computer. Whether it is the teenage-typical first-person shooter Quake to military strategy with Age Of Empires, I love to kill computer generated evil. My new campaign of destruction includes my venture to the middle ages in Neverwinter Nights. A blend of strategy and hacking the undead to pieces, it is doing me just fine. I found myself staring at this damn computer screen for 12 hours this weekend in my quest to finish a particular section. And no, that's not 12 hours during the weekend; that was 12 hours in ONE DAY!!! I am a computer nerd, I can admit it. I just hope that I don't ruin that laser eye surgery that I had a few years ago in my bloodthirst for killing my AI enemy. But at least the world is a safer place...

Today was back to work and a lack of killing AI ghouls is getting to me. The kids were fine today and I once again cannot complain with my students or my school. After working public schools in the US, I am quite content with dealing with the wonderful kids that I have in my international school. We all shared stories about what we did on vacation and secretly we were all glad to see each other again. No one publicly admits to like being in school in fear that they would be riddiculed for whatever reason. I can admit it because I am a teacher. Teachers are supposed to like school, right? I mean, it is our profession and we chose it of our own free will.

Which brings me to what I hate most about how some people view teaching (as a forenote, my sister does not view my profession this way). My sister and I were talking while I was back in the States and she is enamored with the idea of doing what I do. She currently works in "the industry" of TV/movies in LA and her brother is off living in Europe doing a cool thing with teaching in Holland. She likes it so much that she is considering the options about what it would take for her to become a teacher in an international school. As she said, "I could fall back on teaching after this career dries up."

I hate it when people say that.

I love my sister to death. However, I despise people who enter my profession because they didn't know what else to do. We have all met teachers before who were in it for the paycheck and became a teacher after UPS fired them for being incompetent. "Hey, teaching looks easy and anyone can do it!" Bullshit. Most people who don't have kids really don't think about 'falling back' into teaching and what it means.

Think back; who are some of the influential people in your life? Somewhere along the line a teacher has had a profound impact on your life. Mrs Rogers was my third grade teacher and this tender-hearted woman still holds a sacred place in my soul. How to explain her... I can't really - there was just something about this woman that made me believe that I was someone special. Mr Ulrich, my high school band director, taught me a lot about what it is to be a quality person and treated me like an adult (probably before I was ready for it) when few others were.

As a parent, I would be fearful of having someone who has the impact on children that a teacher does to be in that position because they couldn't think of anything else to do. I would want someone to be there because they have a burning desire to see a child succeed and make each and every one of their students a better person.

If you want to 'fall back' into something, try cleaning toilets or flipping burgers. At least then we can get good quality people in front of our kids to do the important jobs out there.



p.s. I am not mad at my sister for saying that but I do wish that she had used a different phrase. And I dunno what kinda teacher she would make, she could be as good at it as I am. Who knows?