By coincidence, I am sitting in one of my favorite coffeehouses where I sometimes bring my computer and write. I am winding down this blog soon, with just a few more posts -- mostly ruminations. As I ordered coffee from one of the staff, I stated that I was celebrating because I was officially retiring from teaching. As I went to the condiment counter, a woman there struck up a conversation with me. She stated that while she was working on a degree in mathematics, she decided it would be good to do substitute teaching. However, she said, after three years of this in a difficult neighborhood in Philadelphia, she got tired of the abuse, the physical threats, and the misbehavior -- tired of the students' entire attitudes towards both her and education -- that she gave it up. She congratulated me on my career change, and said she understood perfectly my feelings about substitute teaching. She had been through the same things.
No comments:
Post a Comment