Six years ago .... when I was 39 .... I stopped by the Assistant Principals' office in my high school to make some copies and visit with the Admin. Assistant who ran that office. I enjoyed talking to her when I had the chance and on this day she was doing something to fix up the bulletin board there in the office. Her efforts were very creative and professional and I commented to her that she should have been an elementary school teacher. And her response to me was ...
"I am! I was!"
Hmmmmm ..... this response surprised me. I mean .... teachers in Texas don't get paid very well compared to teachers across the nation .... but Admin. Assistants in a school get paid far, far worse than teachers. This woman was clearly an intelligent, capable, healthy, motivated, willing to work person. And she dressed very well! So I asked her why she left the classroom. Her response .... ?
"I was starting to go through menopause and I didn't want to put my students through that."
WOW!
I had never thought about that! In September 1989, I went into labor in my classroom and those few weeks of teaching while pregnant were not fun. My son's fifth grade teacher taught through her whole pregnancy and that was not a good year of school for him. Her emotions were all over the place.
Female hormones and the classroom do not mix well. Especially if the classroom is full of teenagers with their own horomone issues!
And here I am .... 45 years old ... perimenopausal .... and in the classroom. Is it hot in here?? Or is it just me? Maybe one-on-one teaching in the climate controlled comfort of my own home would be a better place for me to be. Better than breaking out in a sweat because of a Hot Flash in front of 30 teenagers while teaching them how to find the surface area of a composite geometrical figure. Good times!!
The post that I lost last night had a nicely written paragraph about Arlo Gutherie's song ALICE'S RESTAURANT .... and the part in the song where he is registering for the draft and goes in to see the shrink and says .... "Shrink! I wanna Kill. I wanna KILL. I want to see blood, gore, veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies ... kill .... KILL ..... KILL!! And I start jumping up and down yelling Kill .... KILL ... KILL!! And the shrink starts jumping up and down with me yelling Kill...KILL ....KILL!!"
I forget how I tied it all in to this message ... but last night it fit perfectly!!
Is it hot in here??
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