Every teacher had a teacher who inspired them to be a teacher. Some days I can scroll past the educator memes and others stop me in my tracks. I could not think of one teacher who inspired me to teach. How did I wind up as teacher? Truth is that it was not by accident. Clearly it wasn’t for the money or fame. I didn’t wind up here by chance or luck but by a calling.
When I was 9 years old I was blessed with a younger sibling. Two years later another. Two little sisters to dote upon, play with and care for! In typical fashion, they reciprocated the admiration. Not only did I have two new shadows, younger cousins followed suit. At family events, it seemed the younger ones were drawn to me. This phenomenon of children gravitating toward me only grew as I aged. Small children would talk to me at grocery stores. At my sister’s sporting events, random toddlers would come sit on my lap or start rifling through my purse like I was a familiar adult. It took me some time to understand the gravity of what the universe was trying to convey! I did not go to college initially for education, but marine biology.
After it was clear I was no scientist, I got a job at a local after school tutoring spot with a sporty theme and fast-paced environment in college. I thrived. Students excelled. They were learning and I was getting dopamine fixes each time I saw a light bulb flicker! I was hooked. Give me all the teacher the things to do with educating children! It was no surprise to my mother that I was on my way to being an elementary school teacher. She knew my connection with my sisters and younger children was nothing ordinary. The more experiences in the classroom and learning how to manage curriculum and engagement the more I felt called to the field of education.
Even now, children in public places will smile or talk to me and my family will ask, “is that one of your students?” I shake my head, “I don’t know that kid.” There is something that fascinates me about child development. Why they behave how they do and how they acquire information and personality traits. My interest in the human psyche does not stop at youth but I am mostly interested in children and how people become who they are. Building relationships with children helps me understand the human experience. There is so much to learn in one single interaction with a child.
Being an empath makes my work a work of heart. Literally. Taking on the emotions of others can be powerfully uplifting and at the same time very draining. In a classroom of 20 or more unique personalities, it can be difficult to drown out psychological buzz of what children are feeling at the moment. It can also feel incredibly exhilarating at the same time. Not only does it take energy to plan lessons and physically teach them but to manage the dynamic of the room is the ultimate challenge. Sometimes the stars align and your pipe dream lesson goes beautifully and everyone is feeling good and learning (cue the rainbows and cupcakes). But most days it would take a physicist to calculate how best to teach an engaging lesson while supporting every child’s needs.
My career in education, while it is a calling, is still difficult for reasons mentioned above. I have been called to this profession with an innate ability to build relationships with tiny humans. Those strong relationships help me to build a classroom environment where children feel safe to express themselves and make mistakes. But children grow so fast that the particular algorithm that worked last week may not today. If you are a parent you know this saga. You finally figure out how to manage your toddler, when… boom! A developmental leap occurs and now you’re up against a new set of challenges. If you have more than one child, you know how it becomes tricky to parents children who are vastly different!
Cue my analogy for ‘pretend you have 25 children at home. You need to feed them all dinner and you need to make a split second decision because you all have somewhere to go in 45 minutes. Some of them are tired from the day at school. Some are hangry. Some need to get out all their energy from trying to behave at school with outdoor time. Others need a social battery reset of quiet time like reading, legos or drawing. Some need your direct attention for retelling the day’s events.’ This is no easy task. These are the types of decisions teachers make all day long. We don’t always get it right but there’s not a whole of time to do the calculations on what decisions gets you the most bang for your buck. You quickly read the (class)room and make the call hoping for the best. If you miss, that’s ok. You’ll have to make 234 more of those types of decisions later that day. You’re bound to get some right. Here’s to those cupcake and rainbows days, along with the full-moon disaster days. It’s definitely not boring.
Just because it’s my calling doesn’t mean I’m not kept on my toes. That’s how it feels when you lead a life of purpose. Trying to fulfill a calling is of the highest order and I am not even close to being done. John Mayer said it best, “I’d like to think the best of me is still hiding up my sleeve.”