So, my experience with education was fairly limited up until the time I married into education. I was exposed to one year of church kindergarten, 12 years of public education, and six years of college that should have only been four. And it wasn’t like I was sitting at the back of the class the entire time, although I did spend a great deal of time back there. And if you had asked me I probably would have said I knew quite a bit about education. That is up until the time I married an educator.
Marrying an educator was definitely an eye opener for me as up until that time I had only worked at corporations and mostly knew and socialized with non-educators. Not intentionally mind you, that’s just the way it worked out.
So, up until the point of marrying into education I held the view that many non-educators do. And that is that teaching is kind of a cushy job with lots of long holidays and a long summer vacation with pay. I’m exaggerating some but I really didn’t realize how difficult a profession it was and how much time an educator spends working at school and at home.
Once I married an educator I got to see firsthand how much free time is spent preparing for school, grading papers, prepping the classroom, or attending in-service meetings. Even though I’ve had to work 24 hours straight in several emergencies over the years the amount of time I spent on work outside of normal hours pales in comparison to how much time my wife spent on school related activities.
Some other things that surprised me is that even such things I took for granted such as endless supplies of office supplies are treasured in some schools. Even paper clips which I’ve seen people throw away when they get slightly bent. Something else that never dawned on me is that teachers can’t take a little extra time at lunch to run errands and lunch might consist of lunch duty.
I had seen enough that after several years of marriage I knew that my wife should retire as soon as she was eligible. She was a little worried about making the decision but I helped her by telling her that she had to for her health. My thoughts were how much stress can a person continually take.
If you know of someone who needs an education like I did, please let them read this post. Probably best that they don’t leave a negative comment about educators though as I am worse than a believer in educators, I am a reformed non-believer!