I Teach, Therefore I Am

We had moved to the city that summer, and I had been so busy with the details of the transition that I hadn’t looked for a job. I couldn’t believe my luck when I was able to find a position just two weeks before the start of the school year. The fact that this school had an opening so late in the season should have been a warning. But it flew right over my head. I was simply thrilled that a position was available at all, and in my chosen age group, to boot! I thought it was swell — just swell.

Disclaimer: I enjoy teaching junior high.

Junior high suits me. They’re spunky enough to challenge me, yet young enough that I can direct them toward wholesome, productive paths. I put great faith in planting when I teach. It means that you might not see results — sometimes for years, sometimes forever. But deep inside the student’s subconscious, you’ve left a thought, an idea, an aspiration. A seed has been planted. I live for those seeds. I’ve been a career teacher long enough to experience the miracle of delayed growth countless times.

In the business of chinuch, patience is not just a virtue; it is the fundamental prerequisite!

In this seventh-grade class, there was nothing irregular to report. They began the year with distrust and suspicion. It wasn’t odd with a newly hired teacher with no reputation. I had no established record in the school’s lore. There were no expectations, positive or negative. Twelve to fourteen is a skeptical, watchful age. These girls cope with limited self-knowledge, underdeveloped integrity, and punishing peer pressure. And in all those things, Dally presented as average.