I was a teacher. All I ever wanted to be, when I was growing up.
That changed, once I got to be a teacher. I realized, after 5 years of college, nearly 2 years of graduate work, that when I got up in front of a classroom, that was not where I wanted to be. I stuck it out for four grueling years, until I finally admitted that it wasn't good for me, it wasn't good for the students, and mostly, wasn't good for my family.
HOWEVER - I continued to teach, just tutoring, mostly, and private music lessons. For nearly 10 years. Classroom teacher I was not, one-on-one, I did fine. Even that eventually burned me out. There only so many times you can suffer through "Mary Had a Little Lamb" after all.
My teacher-ness apparently rubbed off on my kids, though. My oldest, the Dancer, is a teacher - and a damn fine one at that. Everyone wants her to be on their staff, they don't care what she teaches, just that she does it at their school. It's really kind of awe-inspiring, to me. She is currently directing a creative drama camp this summer - school without being school, is the way I'm thinking of it. She always wants to be teaching or organizing or directing something.
My second daughter, Turtle, is in banking, in loan operations. Not very teacher-y you might think. But she is adept at explaining difficult loan and interest issues to customers. The biggest telling point about her teacher-ness is with her daughter. There is a picture of her and her daughter in one of our family albums on facebook: Turtle is holding 9-month-old daughter, clearly telling her about something she is holding in her hand, and the baby is drinking it in. My oldest daughter's comment is "Turtle and baby girl - everything is a teaching opportunity".
My son, Baby Boy, now has three children of his own, and he's never been interested in teaching. But kids gravitate to him from everywhere. They all want to be a part of whatever creative game he's got going on with his kids. Big and tall and sturdy, he's like a human jungle gym sometimes, but always aware of what each kid is doing all the time - that radar that teachers (and most parents) seem to have. Not so teacher-y but then he's a guy. He didn't really enjoy making home-made valentines.
Which is another story altogether.
