#1

Ahem. Please allow me to get on my soap box for a little while, to hopefully humor you a bit while preventing you from making a major faux pas.

The #1 thing to never say to a teacher... "It must be nice to have a two-weeks off at Christmas and/or three months in the summer."

Really, truly never say it. Especially not during Christmas break. Or in the week leading up to Christmas break. We all make choices. Your choice was to do something that is not teaching. My choice was to become a teacher. There are perks, I'm not gonna lie.

But I was thinking about some things that must be nice. And I can come up with a little list. Obviously not everything applies to every profession. Regardless, it must be nice...

-to never have to deal with helicopter or indifferent parents
-to, on those bad days, be able to just shut off the world from your little office/cubicle and growl at anyone who interrupts
-to have an extra minute at lunch to run that errand
-to be able to answer the phone and talk any time the doctor/dentist/mechanic/etc. calls
-to leave all your work at work
-to not care (or know) about the crazy rules of standardized testing
-to get up from your desk any time you have to use the restroom
-to not be interrupted in the middle of work (read: a lesson) to try to figure out if a kid called his mom during his last class
-to get paid overtime-to call in sick without planning ahead
-to not worry about keeping track of which boys write passes to use the restroom (to try to figure out who poops in the urinal or is carving graffiti on the stall walls)

It is nice to have two weeks at Christmas and a three-month summer. It's nice to receive sweet Christmas cards and thoughtful (albeit sometimes strange) gifts. It's nice to have hugs. It's nice to spend passing periods visiting with kind, understanding, hilarious coworkers (even though not everyone is as lucky as I am). Sometimes it's even nice to grow through those experiences with cheating students, difficult parents, and moments of failure. I have to tell you, it's nice to be a teacher.

Comments

  1. Susan HanzlicekDecember 18, 2009 at 3:38 PM

    and it is nice
    --to not be performing every minute you are at work (some jobs have a break between customers!!)
    --to not be ripped for not taking work home
    --to not have to fill out multiple forms for a doctor-dentist-funeral or other event
    --to have paper clips and paper when you need it
    --to have a climate controlled work environment

    How long should this list be?!!!

    But, the ability to change the world is indeed amazing. To be remembered fondly after one or five or 10 or even 30 years is fantastic!

    I wouldn't trade with anyone.

    ReplyDelete

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