I was an Educator

I was an Educator.

I began my career as an educator while I was still in high school.  While in high school, upper classmen could assume the role as a cadet teacher and I was given the opportunity to do exactly that.  Jane Engleman (Clarice Jane Snyder) and I were cadet teachers working under the direction of Judy Meeks, the choral director.  If I recall correctly, we helped her with a junior high school music class.  I’m not sure that we did any teaching, but the experience was good and put me on a path that eventually led me to a teaching career.

When I went to college I bounced around college majors like flubber on the shoe soles of basketball players.  At one point I majored in education, but abandoned it in my continued quest to find something for which I could be passionate.  Eventually I found my passion.  My on-again-off-again college career led me through 14 torturous years of part-time and full-time study just to earn my bachelor’s degree.

In the meantime, I was also working full-time and trying to support a family.  I had found my passion in policing and it was in that career that I renewed my interest in education.  Several years previously while I was an undergraduate student, I took an instructor development course.  It was extremely helpful to me in teaching church classes and while working with Boy Scouts.  But, while employed with the police department I had the opportunity to take a “Training the Trainer” course.  Once certified as a police instructor I found myself doing training not only for my own department but also for other departments throughout the state as well as at the police academy.  (Thank you Jim Burleson.)  I even taught a “Training the Trainer” course a few times.  I still have the lesson manual that I created for that course.

Two critical results came from the experiences of finishing my college education while being deeply involved in training.  First, I resolved that upon retirement from my policing career that I would pursue a career in post-secondary education.  This would lead me to complete graduate education.  Second, I finalized in my own mind a distinction between training and education.  Training involves instruction in “what” and “how” and often involves hands-on work.  Education involves instruction in “what” and “why”.  Yes, there is overlap and objectives are similar, but those differences are significant.  Training is practical and application-oriented while education is theoretical and philosophical in nature.  Still, there is room for hands-on application in education and there is room for philosophy in training.  It is the emphasis that is important.

Prior to my retirement from my policing career I began searching for a position in teaching at the college level.  I secured a job teaching on the opposite side of the country and began fulfilling my second dream career.

The first three or four years of teaching were difficult.  I had not realized the effort that would go into teaching five or six class sections each semester.  That amounts to “only” 15 to 18 hours of classroom instruction each week.  I found that I was constantly updating relevant information and adjusting the way I delivered material.  I constantly modified requirements for all of my classes and developed objective guidelines for grading tests and term papers.  I quickly learned that three or four hours in a classroom each day easily translated into another 30 to 40 hours a week of lesson preparation and assignment grading.  There were many late nights and weekends grading tests (especially essay exams) and reviewing term papers.

Of all the lessons I learned while teaching though, the one lesson I learned that was of most value to me was that the best instruction didn’t take place in the classroom, but took place in my office.  At times I had only one or two students in my office at a time.  On other occasions I had students sitting on the floor and leaning against the door frame to my office.  I’m sure that I was in violation of some sort of fire code.  However, when I had eight or ten students in my cramped office all at the same time, something told me that I was doing something right.

I don’t know what learning really took place in the classroom or in my office.  I hope some small amount of good came from it.  But, there was something that struck me when I made the transition from policing to education.  I gained a whole new appreciation for educators.  You see, even though I began this little essay claiming to have been an educator, the truth of the matter is that I really am not a teacher.  At least compared to men and women who had been faithfully teaching day in and day out for 20 or 30 or more years, I clearly was not an educator.  At least I was not an educator like them.

There is an off-handed remark that people make about teachers.  Perhaps you have heard it.  You may have even said it.  It goes something like this: “Those who can’t, teach.  Those who can, do.”  For the most part, this is not true—but only for the most part.  There are people in the college classroom who have absolutely no business teaching.  Most, however, are hard-working, competent, dedicated professionals; at least the ones that I have seen fall into that category.

The worst day of my teaching career was the day that I left the classroom and entered (once again) the arena of administration.  Two things happened.  The first was that I missed the classroom and the day-to-day interaction with students.  The second was the assumption of my teaching colleagues that somehow my DNA had changed overnight.  I was called a traitor (and worse) while my sole purpose in moving into administration was to improve the lot of education in my little corner of the campus.  And though I was no longer trusted as a colleague among many faculty members, I believe I remained faithful to that goal up to retirement.   

I learned other valuable lessons during my short tenure as a professor.  I learned that we are all teachers, trainers, professors, mentors, and educators.  I learned that the older we are and the more experience and knowledge and wisdom we acquire the more we should feel obligated to share that experience, knowledge, and wisdom with those who come up behind us.  Not only should we feel obligated, but we should act on that obligation.

I was an educator.  At least I tried to be an educator.