In response to The Communication Crew here last week

Ok...first of all..this is dripping with super cheesy-ness, I know. But the other day, when the Rowan Communications kids were here, the blonde one made a comment about how you "don't HAVE to just be a teacher." She didn't mean to offend with the comment, but the honesty of it resonated with me. When I was in her shoes, 20 years old, nearly completed college degree, young and full of ambition...I too despised the idea of the teaching profession. I hated to think of the sorrow that surely must be associated with working at a high school. Why would anyone drag themselves into the mediocrity of high school life...as an adult...willingly...everyday? Why work in a school when there are exciting cities, offices...the great big world...to work in? Why would someone choose to go to a place inhabited by a majority of people who are only there because they HAVE to be? I was going to be a journalist. An author. A broadcaster. An airport ranger...anything but a teacher!

The great irony of this sentiment is that I was an education major! I would have told you it was just to "fall back on." My journalism minor...that was my focus. So many college students today tell me that "if they HAVE to...they will 'fall back' on teaching." Many of these former student have since fallen back, others have not. But as I reflect on how unglamorous this profession of mine is...when I think about how much I swore I would never fill the cheap, sensible shoes I now walk in, it only makes me love my job more!

I am most thankful that my gut instinct was to despise teaching and teachers and everything about them as a young man. This hate is exactly what makes me good at my job. For me, the teaching profession is like Marisol Fernandez. Yes, Marisol Fernandez. She was the meanest girl in my fourth grade class. She used to stick her tongue out at me. She always ratted me out. She would point out inacuricies in my wardrobe (what? orange and red don't match?) I always hated her. I told people she was smelly. Yet, in hindsight, I realize that I didn't hate Marisol...I secretly loved her. I was just too young to understand the complexities of that emotion. Being a teacher, for me, is like finding myself happily married to Marisol Fernandez. Because now I know myself better. I understand that I am attracted to challenging, difficult things. I believe it is these things--not glamour, or power, or high-paying jobs -- that make us most human. It is these things that bring us closest to joy. I am attracted to challenges -- like teaching, writing, comedy, parenting, marriage, The New York Mets -- to name only a few. So whether you are heading off to college, already there or already out, don't discount how important a role the things you hate will play in your lives. Like the blonde girl in class the other day said, "I know I can do anything." So do I. That's why I do this.

Here's the article on teaching that prompted this tirade:

Teachers... they are as varied as crayons in a Crayola box. Some are bright, some neutral, some new, some seasoned--but for all their differences, they share the same goal--their life's work is dedicated to imparting knowledge as they challenge their students to learn and grow. It is hard to believe that teachers really do have lives of their own, for they arrive at school when morning has not yet fully come awake, and they stay while the darkness of night descends on the playgrounds outside their windows.There was a time when they only had to worry about failing grades and poor conduct. Like worn-out history books, those days are gone. Today's teachers are expected to be surrogate parents, psychologists, part-time policemen , nurses, comforters, and miracle workers. The importance of the basic 3 R's have been replaced by the reality of the new 3 D's: Drugs, Divorce, and Despair. And yet, through it all, and perhaps because of it all, teachers keep right on teaching, trying harder than ever before to "gift" their students with solid educations, self-worth, opportunities to excel and to believe in themselves by discovering their talents and ambitions, whether in the classroom, on the playing field, in music and art classes, or soaring to new heights when their imaginations and dreams are encouraged.On any given schoolday, teachers open up, for a lifetime, the magnificent gift of reading, the ongoing pleasures of math, the adventures of geography and science, the legacy and lessons of history, the enthrallment of music art, literature and languages, the demands and accomplishments of physical education and athletic competition. Teachers are loved and scorned, respected and derided, remembered and forgotten. They are laughed with, laughed at, and laughed about. They raise their own families and are devoted to someone else's children. They pay for the stickers that delight a little child's heart, slip warm mittens into the pocket of the student that has none, provide a classroom of security and safety when home is a battleground, tutor after school, guide the pregnant teen, cheer at games, counsel anxious hearts, and fall asleep wondering why they feel so tired.Teachers are the reason why airplanes fly, computers program, ballets are danced, novels are written, cancers researched, lawsuits won, skyscrapers built, and "art" decorates refrigerator doors. Life's biggest, boldest, brightest ideas--life's honors, achievements and accomplishments occur because somewhere, sometime, someone touched our lives--and it all began with a teacher.