Driven to Teach

I am sure Miss Opal Horton never realized she began and ended my music career by having me sing solo on the second stanza of “Faith of Our Fathers” in church service on a Father’s Day over 70 years ago. I have tried taking piano lessons and learning the keyboards over the years. I just don’t have the timing. My art talents are about the same. My art teacher in junior high suggested I try band. The band director suggested I go back to art. Neither Miss Opal nor I realized it was the first time I had been in front of the public. As I have written before, when I was in the first grade, Miss Duncan was my teacher. She influenced me to become a teacher, in fact. In college, I thought I might like to be a sociologist. I even took several graduate classes in sociology, and it was one of my teaching fields. I never taught a class in it, and I never even subbed in a sociology class. Demographics was my favorite. In the church, I began working with the younger group and ended up as a lay speaker in the Methodist Church. I switched from Baptist to Methodist after I married a Methodist. I taught classes from junior high to the oldest age group. I changed churches one time because I could not get help with my growing junior high class. That didn’t last long. In the new church, I was asked to help with a class – supposedly in a team teaching situation. Within a couple of weeks, the other team members quit. I finally went to an adult class. Shortly thereafter, the teacher got sick and I was asked to take over. High school activities prepared me for all this teaching. I was in debate, one-act play, and I was a cheerleader for three years (we only had a three-year high school). I was head cheerleader my senior year. And I took extra speech classes in college. When I started teaching, all I wanted to do was be a teacher – being department head or serving in another role was not my thing. I ended up doing seminars on local, state, and national levels. These were at many small colleges in Texas plus some in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., Boston, and others. The largest presentation was at the National Council of Social Studies in Chicago. The last four summers of my career I taught economics on television for Lubbock ISD. There were many fun activities. I modeled for teachers' meetings, school clubs, and the large farm equipment shows. I called the line on beachwear. Sad to say, but I would never be able to go back into the classroom today – even as a sub. I taught for 20 years and subbed for 29. Teaching, with all the changes, is just not the same. I started in an alternative school and ended my career teaching advanced economics and government – both programs I helped set up. Thanks for staying with me.