The Hard Part of Teaching

I ran into a couple of former students in my travels this week, plus I learned of the loss of one. One guy is working at a body shop, married and apparently doing real well for himself. Another one is a cart wrangler at Wal-Mart. He's a nice young man but his prospects are limited, so to speak. The third one passed away, from what I was told, of a drug overdose. He too was a nice young man, with a great sense of humor and way too young to die. That's kind of the long and short of it. Some go on to great things, some don't and some barely get out of the gate. That's also the part you never think about when you're deciding if you want to become a teacher.

My professional philosophy is first of all, try to teach them the trade. Next, teach them the skills to get and keep a job and then try to have as much fun with it as they'll allow you. The way I look at it, I'm not a success if they're not a success. Now, some of the little darlings are really tough to love but the majority appreciate what you do for them. Those of us in a shop environment have an advantage, in that we get to know most of our students on a more personal level. As long as the work's getting done, we can shoot the breeze a little. Talk a little shop, hunting, fishing or whatever is important to them. We can sneak in the occasional donut breakfast or even a barbeque in the vocational class. As any good manager will tell you, you need to know your people to get them to perform at their highest level but it's more than that. I really enjoy the chatter from guys that are planning to set the world on fire. Unfortunately, this can be a real heart-breaker.

Over the many years I've been doing this, I've been to their weddings. I've visited them in the hospital, their homes and jail. I've worked side by side with them and I've been to their funerals. Some of them you never forget, some of them you wish you could. Some come back to visit. Way too many of them just pass into oblivion, never to be seen or heard from again. You always hope you did the right thing by them or at least you didn't do too much damage. I learned the first year of teaching that you can't save them all but I damn sure wish someone could have saved that 19 year old kid.