Teachers

My time in elementary school was average. I went to a religious school in Georgia so when I stepped out of line there was definitely corporal punishment involved. My time  wasn’t great, but it wasn’t horrible either.

When I started 7^th grade things took a sharp turn for the worse. My mom couldn’t afford the tuition for the Baptist church-affiliated school she wanted to send me and my brother to, so she made a deal with the Principal. I was told that I would be the janitor of the school and stay behind every day to clean the school for a couple of hours after school let out each day. This involved vacuuming, taking out the trash, mopping, dusting, etc. for a few dozen rooms in three buildings. I didn’t realize at the time how wrong this arrangement was. I was just 12 years old.

The other kids in school gave me a hard time about it at first, but when 8^th grade started and I was still the janitor, they kind of eased up a little. Feeling sorry for me, I guess.

My relationships with my teachers was a little strained as a result of this arrangement as well. Sometimes they treated me like a student. Sometimes they treated me like an employee. Sometimes I felt like they were behaving toward me the way they would a colleague. At my age I was just confused by the whole thing, but definitely had the gradual suspicion that I was being taken advantage of.

Anyway, this went on through the end of 11^th grade. As you might expect, I developed a great deal of resentment towards my Principal and almost all of the teachers in the school.

As an adult I have had to deal with a lot of what happened then, processing the emotions involved, getting over all the resentment and bitterness surrounding the situation. I think I’ve done a good job with that so far. But, in light of recent events, another aspect has been brought to mind.

Had there been, God forbid, the sounds of gunfire in the hallways or from other rooms in the building, I am confident that they would not have hesitated to bundle us all into the closet as quickly as possible to get us out of harm’s way. In fact, I am pretty sure that they would have laid down their lives for their students.

Maybe it’s time to let go off whatever resentments I’ve been holding on to for all these years. Those teachers that I had so many problems with so many years ago were just people trying to get by. They were just doing the best they could at the time.

Today, I can honestly say, I am grateful for all the teachers that I’ve had in my life. And, teachers everywhere, have my utmost respect and admiration.