Just had an interesting phone call at my home.
It started, "Hey, Dr. Schmier. This is Mandy. Remember me?"
"Sure. What's up that you're calling me this early at my house?
Something wrong."
"Yeah. Sorry to call this early. I have to talk with someone.
And, you were the first one to come to mind. You don't mind, do you?"
"No. That's what I'm here for. I'm listening."
Mandy was student whom I haven't seen in several years and had
just ended her first year of teaching in the public schools. She just
wanted to talk with somebody.
She was, to put it briefly, a tortured concoction of proverbial
agony and ecstasy, of expectation and frustration, of smiles and tears, of
excitement and disappointment. She talked about the students, parents,
fellow-teachers, principals, vice-principals, paper-work, standardized
tests, and on and on and on. Her voice continued to rise and fall like a
stormy wave.
"This....wasn't....what....I....expected," she moaned with a near
scream. I could feel her sense of uselessness, impotence, almost defeat
that seemed to border on an anger. "My ed teachers with all their
theories and books didn't prepare me for the real world of teaching. I
thought I was a professional and I feel that I am treated as an amateur by
everybody. No one seems to really care, I mean really care, about the
kids. All they care about is their jobs, their image, test scores and
grades and forms and all that crap. Remember the Popeye 'words of the
day' you put on the blackboard? 'Youse gets out whats you puts in?' Well,
everybody 'wants out' and nobody seems to 'wants to puts in'"
Mandy seemed to be an incarnate echo an op-ed piece I read the
other day in the WASHINGTON POST by Vartan Gregorian, President of the
Carnegie Corporation.
"Everybody? Nobody? They? Does that include yourself?
She hesitated and then sighed. "Honestly, I don't know now. I
don't know if this is what I want."
"What do you want?
"I want to be a good teacher. I want to make a difference."
"Then be one and do it."
"It's so hard."
"Of course it's hard."
And we talked.
"What should I do. That's why I called. Tell me what to do."
"You know better than to ask me that. You want advice: Remember
THE CHAIR. Listen. Mandy, I really can't tell you what to do. Only you
can do that," I answered with a non-answer. "Understand this: it's
not a question of if it's going to be hard or if you're going to have
problems. The question is how are you going to deal with them; how are you
going to perceive them and respond to them. That's what makes the real
difference among people, not the problems but their responses. If I have
learned anything in the past decade as I struggled to become a teacher, it
is one thing: there are no realities in the classroom; there are only
perceptions. And, those perceptions are your reality. Whatever you want
to see in yourself and around you, you will see....and you will fight to
believe....and you will struggle to be....you will look those "it's hards"
or "it's not fairs" or the "why mes" in the eye and you will go out there
and make it happen for yourself. Remember what Popeye the Sailorman said,
"Youse gets out whats youse puts in."
I could almost hear her smile. And, she talked some more, a lot
more.
"Thanks," she said, "Can I call again?"
"Sure. Any time."
Make it a good day.
--Louis--
Louis Schmier www.therandomthoughts.com
Department of History www.halcyon.com/arborhts/louis.html
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, GA 31698 /~\ /\ /\
229-333-5947 /^\ / \ / /~\ \ /~\__/\
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