[Publib] On This Profession

[Backwage at aol.com]

Joe's comment reminds me of something from my past.
 
A few days before he died (age 49) my father got into a conversation with  
me about life and work.  I was barely 16.  He said, more or  less:
 
"I know you want to be a school teacher.  You shouldn't do it.   The work 
is nothing like you think it is and the profession has been steadily  
degrading for years.  The public have much less respect for teachers than  they did 
a generation ago, and the public schools are losing ground every  year.  
The pay is awful.  The machinist and the plumber on our block  make more than 
I do.  Your mother earns more than I do sewing for the  theater.  Worst 
thing of all is that the profession is loaded with people  who don't have the 
enthusiasm for the job.  And they can't be fired.   Every few years we have to 
hope for a bond issue so that we can pay for the  basics of education.  
Sometimes we can't.  I own two suits.  Both  of them are twenty years old.  My 
shoes are older.  My boss is a  teacher who couldn't make it in the 
classroom.  He makes twice what I do,  and he tries to control my life."
 
I pretended not to be crushed by this.  It was years before I realized  he 
had saved my life.  My friends who became school teachers all came to  echo 
those sentiments. Even so, my father loved teaching.  Teaching--not  the 
other things.  He left me that love and that final warning.  But  not much 
else.  When he died we got nothing because the teacher's  retirement didn't 
extend to widows.  
 
M.
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