Career

(Author's note: This was originally published on myspace with an intended audience of high school students. Please don't assume I'm talking "down" at my peers. Many of the reposts from my early days will have a target audience. I shifted the target as my audience became primarily adult).

There is something inherently insane about being both a Libertarian and a public school teacher. After all, if the Libertarians had their way, there would no longer exist a free, compulsory public education system. Education would be left up to parents. It would cost. Parents could choose what kind of education their child should receive, where they would receive it, and at what age they could finally throw in the towel and send the kid to work. In the meantime, I work for a public school...and it sure as hell is compulsory for almost every kid in attendance.

Lessons I learned as a product of the public school system:

1. If you are really smart, you become educated in spite of the public school system and not because of it. In general, there is much angst that goes along with this. Being smarter than your teachers sucks. I have been privileged to have a few students who were smarter than me. I enjoyed the challenge. What a treat!

2. If you are one of the eighty percent of the world who can be considered "normal" (you can look that one up, but it won't help - never have found a definition of that word that works for me), then you will sort of coast through, struggling a bit here and there with a subject or a particular teacher, maybe with a suspension or two for a little rebellion. A fight here, a cigarette there. No biggie. You muddle through, wind up in a JC or University, muddle through some more, and eventually have relatively successful lives.

[Liza's note : Awesome, awesome, first time post. Good way to start the new year.]

I'd like you to meet a few people I know. Maybe this will help you better understand why I put up with so much cow manure on a daily basis.

Meet Anthony. Take a minute to read his life story, if you would. I’ll tell you my side of it. I met Anthony when he was a ninth grader. He had written a very well written story that scared his ninth grade English teacher to death. She was convinced that we had another Dylan Kliebold on our hands. I thought otherwise. He was an awkward kid, a little overweight, very unkempt. His wardrobe was limited, he wasn’t always particularly clean, and he had a temper like Vesuvius. He was also creative, bright, and articulate (even if we didn’t always like what he had to say).

So the meetings started. I asked him to get involved with the STAR program, and he did. I asked him to do his schoolwork, and he mostly did. His dad cut a deal with him and sobered up so that Anthony would graduate. I watched this awkward child blossom into a responsible almost-adult. He was the school mascot his senior year, much beloved by his classmates, even though he was still reeling from the death of his beloved step-mom. He still remains involved with the youth of the city. He attends community college, and proudly reported that he almost has a 4.0. He’s struggling with math. Hey, I understand that. I got out of math in college by taking linguistics and BASIC. He writes wonderfully expressive poetry, and has started a book about his life. He is planning on finishing his associate’s degree and moving on to university. He wants to be an English teacher, and while I know that he’s had this in him since before he met me, it is still one of the greatest honors I could have. This man has overcome things the rest of us only read about. I am proud to know him. I hope that I helped him at some point along the way, but I think it was mostly hard work on his part with help from his dad and step mom. I don't care what you believe; I know that woman is bursting with pride for him wherever she may be.