Never in my life did I ever want to be a teacher. I don’t think I ever played “classroom” when I was little. I wanted to be a nurse. I think I liked that they wore that cute little cap. Every year for Christmas or my birthday I got a nurse’s kit. I never got anything to use as a teacher.
When I went to college and studied Speech, I had no idea what I would do with that degree. Initially I wanted to be a DJ but when that didn’t pan out I thought I would go into PR. That didn’t line up with all of my Speech classes. I asked others in my classes and they all gave me the same response, they were going to teach.
Not me. I did not have the patience to teach. Maybe if I taught on the college level I wouldn’t need much patience. But I would need a ton of patience to complete all of the education I would need to teach in college. So, no, I did not want to teach.
So, what did I plan on doing with a degree in Speech? I wanted to be a public speaker. I wanted to make my living going around and talking with groups of people. What was I going to talk with them about, you ask? I didn’t know that other than to give me a topic and I could talk for hours.
It took me many, many years to realize being a public speaker was being a teacher. No matter what you would talk about you would be sharing your knowledge, and that is what a teacher does. To be honest, I never became a public speaker. Oh, I would speak to a group from time to time but that had more to do with my profession in sales or my hobby as a writer.
What got me though was that three out of my four children have become teachers. Two of them by profession, the other by being a substitute. Shoot, my oldest is also a high school soccer coach so he got a double whammy. When he was going into his senior year of high school and told his advisor he was going to college to become a social studies teacher and a soccer coach I about fell out of my chair. Where in the world did that come from?
When my youngest daughter told me she wanted to teach agriculture I knew that was coming. Maybe she watched her brother. Maybe she watched her ag advisors. I knew of her love for agriculture and FFA so it just made sense. When her sister started substitute teaching almost full time that messed with me too. But her children were all in school so maybe that was her motivation.
Oh, I’ve done some teaching through the years. I did a couple of stints teaching parish religious education. I think that’s about it though.
The fact that I never wanted to teach was lost on the fact that I always wanted to be a mother. A mother is her child’s first and best teacher. From beginning to breastfeed, through walking and talking and tying shoes and helping with homework and on and on and on. I didn’t even know that I was teaching. I didn’t even know that they were learning. But learning they were. A lot of time they would learn things that I didn’t necessarily want them to know. So, a teacher? Well, yes, I am.
The lesson I am most proud that I have taught is my faith. I made a point to not just have my children in religion classes or at Mass or whatever. I made a point to teach them by example. I am so proud that they learned their faith from their parents.
I teach my faith with my life to whomever I encounter. Some don’t pay attention. Some don’t know that they’re learning. But they all see it. They all hear it. There are times I would like to get ahold of some of the kids, or even the adults, to teach them how to do the sign of the cross or which knee to go down on when they genuflect. I don’t think that’s my job. Being attentive in Mass, singing every song, saying all the prayers. I know they hear me and follow my example and that is all I can ask.
I’ve been taught by the best: my parents, the Ursuline sisters, every priest I’ve encountered, all the books I’ve read. But the greatest teacher I’ve ever had has been Christ and His mother. And what an example they led.