Not a Hero

For inspiration, I remind myself that in order to be a teacher hero, one must teach in the face of adversity. No one makes a movie about a teacher at a privileged school (except for maybe "Dead Poet Society, but even that was about a subversive teacher trying to institute change from within). So, as I gear up for this week, I know that the struggles I will face will help to strengthen me as a teacher and will most importantly, make a change in my students' lives.

Teaching this age group is a process of planting seeds. Little seeds that will take root further in their educational paths. When they delve more deeply into Shakespeare's work, they will have some working knowledge of the Elizabethan Era. They will have heard at least two Langston Hughes poems. Know who Maya Angelou is. Seen a clip of a Greek Chorus from "Oedipus Rex". Read play versions of classic American short stories such as "Legend of Sleepy Hollow", "Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Gift of the Magi". Gotten up in front of their peers to perform speeches, monologues and dramatic dialogues. Know how to shake hands, meet eye contact and say, "Nice to meet you".

Skills that will develop over the course of time. Wisdom that will be understood later in their maturation journeys. Perhaps teaching like this is going "above their heads", but standards and expectations must be really high in order to engage these students' attention.

So, if in the process, I have to battle against barriers in the classroom and against home lives that are less than desirable... the rewards will be all the more sweet when my students grow up and achieve. I know this to be true since I've been teaching for so long. I've seen my previous students soar in their lives and come back to me with the ultimate "teacher paycheck". Their life successes. And if in the process, I achieve the ultimate label of "teacher hero", that will be awesome.

However, I don't need a teacher hero movie made about my life or a book deal offered in order to be successful. Every day, my little ordinary instructional lessons are the meaning and point of the work I do. I've just never taken the easiest paths. I seem to always choose the road less traveled. And according to Frost, that makes all the difference.