Middle School History and English Teacher

He was undecided about his career even after he started it but after trying a different career, learned that “the grass is not always greener over the fence” so he returned to deal with multiple challenges and found career satisfaction along his original path. 

FAMILY BACKGROUND AND THEIR CAREER INFLUENCE

JC is the older brother of the two children in the family. His father was a civil engineer within the state highway department. His mother was a third-grade teacher, one of several professional educators within JC’s extended family of aunts and uncles. 

Family’s direct influence regarding JC’s eventual career – No one ever told JC that he should be a teacher, but his mother did often tell him, when speaking about how she enjoyed being a teacher and working with a good principal, that “you would be good at this!” 

Family’s indirect career influence – JC occasionally visited classrooms being taught by his aunts, who enjoyed their teaching careers. One aunt helped him with ideas for his ninth-grade graduation speech. So, early on, JC liked teachers as ‘people’ and he observed how much they loved what they did. 

CHILDHOOD THOUGHTS OF AN ADULT CAREER

When a second-grade teacher asked each student individually what they would like to do as a ‘grown-up’ JC told the class, after looking out the window to see older boys playing baseball in the schoolyard, that he would like to be a ‘pro baseball player.’ During his high school years, JC asked his father about different types of engineers while his father took him on some of his business trips as an engineer for the state highway department. 

SCHOOL DAYS 

Within his high school courses, JC began to realize that he was enjoying History and English courses more than Math and Science, but he worked hard enough in all his courses to achieve a ‘good’ GPA and class rank, which would soon become helpful for his college applications. JC participated in several varsity sports, including baseball and football. 

COLLEGE – CAREER PATH REMAINS UNDECIDED

JC always assumed that he would attend and graduate from college, as had both his parents. His father had 4 cerebral strokes within a few years of dying at age 55. His mother’s teacher salary would not fully support college education for both her sons so when JC applied to colleges, his applications requested significant financial aid. Not yet focused on a specific career path, JC applied to several colleges and was accepted by each. So, how to choose where to enroll?

By coincidence, during his high school years, while participating in several of his church’s youth group events, JC had spent several days on the campus of the college where he eventually enrolled. In addition to being comfortable on this size of campus (which housed about 1800 students, in contrast to the enormous, state university campus he had once visited with his father), he knew people who had enjoyed their experiences at this college, including several older friends plus the Pastor of JC’s church and several of its members. The ‘clincher’ for JC was a financial aid package which was superior to the aid offered by the other schools where he could have enrolled. 

After enrolling, JC joined the fraternity where his older friends were already members. Freshman year courses were all mandatory so when JC eventually had the opportunity to select courses, he chose only one related to education (too boring!) but enjoyed his eventual ‘major’ (courses focus) in history, possibly a bit caused by his first history professor’s fun personality. 

During a discussion with an English course professor, JC asked whether it was possible to pursue a career in journalism with a college background of a History major and an English minor. The professor replied that people do that all the time. 

MILITARY SERVICE OPTION – PURSUE OR AVOID?

(Editor’s note – When JC enrolled in college, US troops were at war in a foreign country and all 18-year-old males had to register for the military draft. If drafted, the commitment to serve would last two years as a basic soldier. However, college students could choose to participate in a military officer training program (Reserve Officer Training Program, “ROTC”) for the 4 years of their college enrollment and upon graduation, serve as an officer for 4 years. During college, there would be weekly classes and drills and a month-long summer camp after the Junior year. 

JC joined Air Force ROTC with the expectation of completing the four-year program (not involving pilot training) while a full-time college student; had he dropped out of the program while still a college student, he would immediately be subject to being drafted into the Army as a basic soldier. After his first two years participating in ROTC, JC wondered whether to continue, involving a 4-year military commitment after college graduation, or to drop out and take his chances with the draft. He discussed his dilemma with his father, who had enjoyed his career as a radio instructor in the Navy and had considered continuing in the military for a total of 20 years to qualify for a military pension. Still thinking fondly of his Navy service, JC’s father encouraged JC to continue with the program. 

MILITARY EXPERIENCE AIDS CIVILIAN CAREER

While rising from a Second Lieutenant to Captain during his four years as an Air Force Officer abroad (The Philippines, and Viet Nam) and stateside (Texas), JC served in many capacities including Intelligence Communications Officer, Basic Psychology Course Instructor, Flight Commander for 100 Air Force troops and a Plans and Policy Officer. In combination, the multiple leadership positions dealt with a wide variety of issues ranging from disciplining, counseling and teaching troops he commanded to briefing senior Officers on top secret, military intelligence and security issues. Each management experience, occasionally requiring him to prepare presentations of color slide shows (a forerunner of Power Point), unintentionally aided his eventual, long-term civilian career within education. 

MILITARY CAREER ENDS – NOW WHAT?

Upon his Honorable Discharge from the military, JC narrowed his still unknown future career preparations to three options: (1) take the Graduate Record Examination (“GRE”) to pursue a Fellowship Program scholarship and then the teaching profession; or (2) apply to law school as recommended by several friends; or (3) pursue a business career by first enrolling in a business-related graduate school. 

Investigating option (3), JC took the graduate school test, did not score well and discussed that test result with a business school admissions representative, who told JC that “If we admit you, it would be based mostly on your achievements as a military officer but essentially, you would be a calculated risk for our school.” Hearing ‘calculated risk’ gave JC concern about his ability to succeed academically so he turned instead to original option (1) by taking the GRE for an education related grad school, enrolling in a Master of Arts in Teaching Social Studies program (including courses in history, political science, anthropology and education methods) which earned his certification to teach social studies in that state’s 7^th through 12^th grades. 

STILL UNDECIDED DESPITE A MASTER’S DEGREE IN A SPECIFIC CAREER PATH

Achieving a Master’s Degree in a specific field of learning (e.g., Social Studies Education) does not bind the graduate to pursue that line of work. So, JC still had time to ponder his future working career – assuming he had another source of income to support himself until he found a job to his liking; fortunately, he did: his wife’s minimal working income. 

JC asked himself: Do I really want to go into teaching? How does it compare from an income standpoint to a career in business? While interviewing for a teaching position with a school Principal and the district’s Superintendent, JC realized that his personality would not mesh with those two school leaders. When the Superintendent asked, “What would you say if I offered you the job right now?” JC said, “I would have to think it over.” His indecision was related as much to the career itself as to the prospect of working with those two individuals. 

To help guide his career decision process, JC talked to a university career counselor, who administered an ‘aptitude and interest survey,’ the results of which JC found inconclusive to resolve whether he should pursue working in education or in business. So, JC’s next step was to attend a ‘business fair’ in New York City, where he was offered a job as an insurance underwriter (who assesses the risk and advises the insurance sales agent whether to offer an insurance policy and if so, at what cost to the consumer). JC (again) asked for time to consider the offer but was immediately not impressed by either the activities of the job or the urban environment where he would be required to live and work (unless he opted to include a long commute from a less congested residential area). 

HAVING RECEIVED CAREER ADVICE, TIME TO MAKE A DECISION

By this time, JC had:

* Observation of family teaching experience and their encouragement toward his career in teaching

* Received a professor’s advice that his background would be suitable for a career in journalism

* Earned a Masters Degree in Education toward teaching Social Studies

* Served as a Military Officer, gaining management and leadership experiences

* Been offered a job as a teacher, for courses he was certified to teach

* Been offered a job in the insurance business

* The support (literally and figuratively) from his wife to choose a career where he would be happy

And he was still undecided. 

So, having listened to many voices, JC took a quiet walk into the countryside to achieve a peaceful surrounding in order to make up his mind: would it be business or education? By this time, he had interviewed for a middle school teaching position which would involve both English and History. By coincidence, the interviewer was a graduate of his same Masters Degree program and they ‘hit it off.’ JC liked the courses he would be teaching and the representative of that school district. The ‘clincher’ was the district’s offer to credit JC for 4 years of teaching based upon his 4 years as a military officer, which resulted in higher compensation to start since he would ‘plug into’ the union negotiated pay scale at 4 levels higher than an entry level teacher without similar credits. 

A CAREER DECISION IS NEVER A BINDING COMMITMENT (UNLESS THERE IS A MUTUALLY AGREED, SPECIFIC CONTRACT TERM) 

Would the reader believe that JC, while enjoying his co-workers and the subjects he was teaching for the next several years, consider changing his career? If the reader believes that JC, initially uncertain about his career path, might someday return to uncertainty under certain conditions, the reader would be correct. What might be those conditions which caused JC to ponder his future? The next section summarizes teaching related issues which became important ‘career challenges’ for JC.

CAREER CHALLENGES 

1. (Some) parents’ dissatisfaction with the curriculum – While JC received some praise and appreciation from parents during school conferences and random meetings in the community, some parents misunderstood the benefits of correlating the teaching of English and History, apparently believing the two should not be mixed and to do so, created essentially an ‘unstructured’ way of learning, to the disadvantage of the students, which the parents communicated directly to the school’s administration. The school faculty disagreed but the school administration had to be aware of the concerns of the tax paying parents, which led to some CORE program changes. 

2. (Some) students’ maturity issues – Fellow teachers sometimes (confidentially) characterized their middle school age students with one phrase: “The range of the strange” meaning students within that age range were trying to adjust to different rates of physical growth and mental / social maturity. Behavior problems were not uncommon. Teachers had to be involved in the discipline process, which resulted in boring supervision of detention sessions. This is not why the teachers had pursued their college and graduate degrees in education. 

3. The hours which must be devoted to teaching and preparing to teach, including time after formal school hours to interact with parents and colleagues, far exceeds a five days, 8 daily hours workweek. Admittedly, summers and school vacation days are potentially ‘off-duty’ time but during the 10 school months, the pace is hectic and even during supposed off-duty time, a teacher is pondering future lesson plans, studying materials to stay current with the topics to be taught and may need to supplement family income with a summer job, toward sending children to post high school education.

4. Compensation for teaching is known to be considerably less than the amounts which could be earned within the business world for similar efforts.

5. Coaching school sports teams is overall enjoyable but adds additional working hours due to its nature as an after-school activity, especially when traveling to away games. 

Like virtually all teachers, JC’s teaching contract covered only one year at a time, from July 1 through June 30 of the following year. So, JC was legally entitled to not renew his teaching contract at the end of each teaching ‘year.’ (Editor’s note – As a practical matter, a teacher can quit at any time with little notice and not worry about being forced to complete the teaching year because laws do not require performance (through an injunction); law may only prohibit performance; however, quitting prematurely likely precludes that teacher ever being hired by any school district should the teacher change his or her mind in the future.)

“THE GRASS IS NOT ALWAYS GREENER OVER THE FENCE”

(Editor’s note – The reader may already be acquainted with the concept that making a change doesn’t always turn out as expected, which is sometimes expressed as “Might as well stick with the devil you know, rather than the devil you don’t know.” All of which means that you can make a change quickly without any thought or taking time to study the change and despite your best efforts, the change may still turn out to be worse than your current situation. There is no formula to determine which move will be successful; do your homework and if it seems like the right move, then don’t be afraid to take a reasonable risk and jump into a new situation. Just remember that no situation is always perfect.)

JC’s next career venture was a job as an Alumni Relations Director for the college from which he had graduated, where he was initially glad to work with just adults, away from supervising groups of teenagers and having to deal with the unfounded concerns of their parents. But soon JC had to deal with a new set of problems: pressure to push alumni for financial contributions, listening to alums who disliked the college’s current administration, alums who wanted more emphasis on athletic teams’ success, alums who wanted less emphasis on athletic teams’ success, etc. Constant traveling was also tiring, plus he missed being with his family while away. 

CHANGING THE CHANGE

If you are willing to risk one career change, why not be willing to risk a second career change? 

Realizing that no job or career is perfect, JC decided he would rather cope with the challenges of teaching because its positives (helping kids learn and mature) far outweighed its negatives (long hours while dealing with some ill-informed parents and some immature students). 

JC was fortunate that his former school had an opening for him to return to teach his previous courses. JC’s colleagues welcomed his return. He enjoyed teaching and coaching for the next 20 years until voluntarily retiring – a final and welcome change to slow his pace and create more time to assist his wife in her business, where his manual labor “skill” at lugging her video presentation equipment could be useful. (LOL)

TYPICAL DAILY ACTIVIITES OF ONE MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER

Every day was never the same and not every one of the following activities could possibly occur on the same day but to provide a glimpse of the professional life of a middle school teacher, the following is a list of typical activities:

• Arise, get yourself ready and drive to school, arriving by 8 a.m.
• Supervise homeroom to make sure students are participating in the flag pledge and listening to announcements
• Teach 5 separate periods of one hour each
• During a free period, attend a teacher team meeting or participate in parent conferences or prepare to teach next classes
• After school, attend department or faculty meetings
• After school sports coaching, return home even later on game days
• Evening and weekend activities: phone calls to parents, prepare and revise lesson plans and correct papers

CAREER SATISFACTION

JC was always attracted to a ‘service’ occupation. Despite the possibility of earning more money within the business world, his basic passion was to help others, for which he had been favorably influenced by his extended family. 

Having experienced, however briefly, working with only adults, JC was able to appreciate the value he could bring to society by patiently trying to teach and deal with all types of children and their parents, for which he sometimes received favorable comments from parents at random events and eventually from some of his students following their graduation. 

JC will always fondly recall kudos presented by students within their yearbook comments. On one occasion, JC reciprocated by having a poem printed to reflect his teaching philosophy:

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“A TEACHER’S PRAYER

I want to teach my students how

To live this life on earth,

To face its struggles and its strife

And to improve their worth.

Not just the lesson in a book

Or how the rivers flow

But how to choose the proper path

Wherever it may go.

To understand eternal truth

And know the right from wrong.

And gather all the beauty

From a flower and a song.

For if I help the world to grow

On wisdom and in grace,

Then I shall feel that I have won,

And I have filled my place.

And so, I ask for guidance

That I may do my part

For character and confidence

And happiness of heart.” (Author unknown)