With the close of last school year, I completed my 30th campaign in education. Each of those years has been filled with joy and sorrow, challenges and successes, ups and downs and a ton of stories worth sharing. My (True) Life in Education Thus Far will detail 30 or so of those stories. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed living (most) of them!
THE FAMILY BUSINESS
January 25, 2023
I cannot remember once in my college studies as I prepared myself to be a high school teacher thinking “I am following in the family footsteps.” My parents were not teachers. My older sister was not considering becoming one. It did not feel to me like I was paying tribute to my family in my career choice.
This frame of mind did not consider my grandmother.
Grandma was an elementary school teacher for years. She taught at Brown Elementary, one of the neighborhood elementary schools down the street from her home. I remember many summers when Grandma invited me and my older sister to decorate her classroom. I remember when she retired. I remember her talking about missing teaching. Why I did not recall any of this when I was choosing my career path is beyond me.
And it was not just Grandma.
My mother’s brother, my uncle, was a math professor at Southern Illinois University for his entire professional career. He served as the Dean of the Math Department for many, many years.
His daughter, my cousin, also became a university professor.
My aunt was a long-tenured English professor at a community college.
Her son, another cousin, became a social studies teacher for a second career.
Her daughter, still another cousin, is still a preschool teacher and administrator.
My brother-in-law taught high school for years.
Beyond all of these relatives, my son chose education as his first career path and is teaching at the school where I am principal. What a gift this is! He’s a really talented teacher, too.
And my wife has been a high school teacher for over 20 years and is one of the best educators with whom I have ever worked. That we got to team-teach a US history/US literature class together for years in our career is an absolute highlight of my life. She is teaching at my high school as well and I am so very happy to be working with her again.
Dear Lord, it’s a family business and I never realized it…
