Why Teach?

I have been slacking this week in my writing. You say, "This week?" I have had a bit of a hard time getting into a flow. With all the hubbub here: my kids moving and fixing my office and what not...By the way, this is the first official blog that I have written in my new home office. Kind of snazzy. I have all the amenities of an office and the commute is not that far for me to do everyday if I wish.

I offer all this information to rationalize that my busy schedule has made me a slacker. I never slacked, much...and this new found passion is one which I have to ease into. Writing burnout is not my goal here, but rather the expression of sincere ideas which someone somewhere can read and say, "Awwww, yes, I agree." or "That guy is full of horse ptuttie." But it takes time to get into a groove, and I have yet to hit my stride. If I was Alfonso Soriano, I would just swing at low outside one and walk to the dugout before going out into the field and defying all fundamental laws of baseball and hope that the next time up, I could hit a homer so people would think I earned my great big salary.

This week, in terms of rationalization, I have been entertaining a former student of mine who came to Arizona as forward scouting party for his parents. He and his family have been close to us for years, and I have watched the little round furball grow into quite a man. He came out this week, and we have covered the state from Tombstone to the Grand Canyon. In our nine hours of travel by car, we have had some great talks. Everything from coaching to parenting (he has no children, yet, but he is looking for the perfect mate, girls) to politics and religion.

On Wednesday night, we had a lovely visit with one of his classmates that lives out here in the valley, we will call her Tweedledum. I call her that because that is how her high school biology teacher referred to her in class, along with her labmate, TweedleDee. She was a great kid back when I had her in class and she is a beautiful woman now. After garnering a degree in psych, she has gone on to start a degree in nursing. She hopes to be a Nurse Practitioner some day, and I believe she will do it.

These two fine adults showed me this week that one of the reasons I had kids and went into education has been fulfilled. Someday, I wanted my students to be friends. There are many of my former students out there, and now we are friends. Back-in-the-day, we struggled to understand each other as I sometimes dragged them through the lessons berating them, making fun of them, praising them, and sometimes scolding them. The ultimate goals in life, however, were theirs, not mine. If they are not what they wanted to be, it is not my fault, it is theirs. My ultimate goal was to get them to function as an adult and be a profitable member of society. As Michael Jackson's song goes, "Start with the man in the mirror."

I love my kids, both my biological and my educational. They have all been a great part of my life and have taught me as much, hopefully, as I have taught them. Some have turned out great, others are still struggling. But I love them like a pig loves mud.

Thanks for reading.

Doughnut