Why did you become a teacher?

[Igel]

7. Why did I become a teacher?

I was teaching summer school at a university.

Had a student who was going to be a 4th year senior in the fall, a student who was going to be a 5th year senior in the fall, and an incoming frosh.

The two seniors were functionally illiterate. Why, I thought, was I trying to teach them Russian literature in translation when they couldn't write a coherent sentence, when one stumbled over the word "can" and couldn't sound out "Brooklyn", and neither of them were keeping the journal that was going to be 30% of their grade? I asked the administration where to get help for them and was told that at a Tier I university what I was describing was quite impossible. And to stop asking embarrassing, hurtful questions.

The incoming frosh was great. She went through an IB program. The two seniors were football players.

So I entered an ACP, figuring in high school I could spot and get help for students. Did the student teaching gig. Physical sciences. Sent out perhaps 10-15 applications, got a job on my second interview a couple of years ago during the Great Teacher RIF of 2011. Turned down a third interview minutes later. Still at the same school.

Wife was similar, did the same program, she got a job offer on her way to her third interview.