For years I swore I wouldn't ever retire from teaching, but now it is getting to a point where people I don't even know are likely to make assumptions about me and the way I teach, and it is becoming tiresome. Look, for anyone who is reading this, not all teachers are bad. Maybe I'm lucky - I teach in a rural east Tennessee county at a high school with about 950 kids. They say the Pledge every morning. Some kids want to go to college, and some want to just work on the family farm. I'm one of only three veterans on staff. I am having to deal with all that covid bullshit that set these kids back at least three years. I've got some kids come into class with "thousand yard stares." To top it off, I teach math, a subject a lot of kids don't like and hardly anyone wants to teach. I am never going to win a teacher of the year award and I couldn't care less. I've got some kids who look to me as a father figure because they don't have one at home. They'll hug me or high-five me both in the morning and when they get on the buses to go home. The point of the whole thing is this...teaching used to be seen as a noble profession. Now we're blamed for everything, and it's worse for me because I'm an older white male. Well, if it's any consolation, I tell the kids at the first of the year that as long as they don't push me on three things, they'll be fine. Those three things are my family [wife, breast cancer survivor and son, Senior Chief in the US Navy]; my students [yes, they are mine, and if you come on my campus with ill intent I will take you down, period]; and country [if you attack this country I will do what I can to find you and exterminate your sorry ass]. So far it's been twenty-five years of joy, happiness, pain and sorrow. Just in case something happens to me, I want people to know that there are still those who are willing to give it all they've got to make sure the kids are okay.
For years I swore I wouldn't ever retire from teaching, but now it is getting to a point where people I don't even know are likely to make assumptions about me and the way I teach, and it is becoming tiresome. Look, for anyone who is reading this, not all teachers are bad. Maybe I'm lucky - I teach in a rural east Tennessee county at a high school with about 950 kids. They say the Pledge every morning. Some kids want to go to college, and some want to just work on the family farm. I'm one of only three veterans on staff. I am having to deal with all that covid bullshit that set these kids back at least three years. I've got some kids come into class with "thousand yard stares." To top it off, I teach math, a subject a lot of kids don't like and hardly anyone wants to teach. I am never going to win a teacher of the year award and I couldn't care less. I've got some kids who look to me as a father figure because they don't have one at home. They'll hug me or high-five me both in the morning and when they get on the buses to go home. The point of the whole thing is this...teaching used to be seen as a noble profession. Now we're blamed for everything, and it's worse for me because I'm an older white male. Well, if it's any consolation, I tell the kids at the first of the year that as long as they don't push me on three things, they'll be fine. Those three things are my family [wife, breast cancer survivor and son, Senior Chief in the US Navy]; my students [yes, they are mine, and if you come on my campus with ill intent I will take you down, period]; and country [if you attack this country I will do what I can to find you and exterminate your sorry ass]. So far it's been twenty-five years of joy, happiness, pain and sorrow. Just in case something happens to me, I want people to know that there are still those who are willing to give it all they've got to make sure the kids are okay.
...the effects of your efforts will be felt a hundred years from now....
...not many can lay claim to that....
..God bless you for your continued service to our country...
Thanks Doggo. Always the kind word.
...dogs are notoriously sincere....