Why Do We Do This Job? - Part 4

The stories of teachers in this series have all been of educators in the back half of their careers. Their experiences and wisdom earned along the way are generally insightful for us all. But when our school elected a 6th-year teacher as our Teacher of the Year, I felt that it was important to understand her perspective as well. The majority of Emily Lahr's teaching experience has been in a time of educational turmoil. Given her education, drive, and youth, she could have decided at any point to go and use her talents elsewhere. So I had to ask her, "Why do you do this job?"

Mrs. Lahr's mom is a middle school business teacher, and while you might think that she was just joining the family business, I think you'd be wrong on this one. Emily always thought she was a biology major as a route to medical school. But when she started helping teach lab classes, she found real fulfillment in helping turn on that lightbulb in student's brains. When it was time for graduate school, she chose education over medicine. I remember recruiting her and I convinced her to come check out our school to see if it was a good fit for her. I'm always impressed when potential hires take me up on that, because that's true initiative. She took the job and suffered the wrath of being a young teacher and coach amongst "the boys" of the athletic ranks. She gave it back to them just as quick as they dished it out. 

So when we started talking about why she chooses to be a teacher, she gushed about getting former students to a national science fair. Their research on caffinated soybean plants was enough to get the judges attention despite the handmade trifold board amongst the professionally printed posters. The same college girl that was a full-blown science geek got to bring that back through her students. And there it was; her reason why she does this job. Emily Lahr is still a student. Being a teacher allows her to learn something alongside her students every day. Some days she learns a lot about content and other days she learns a lot about people. But every day is a lab and she's still doing research. 

Her family always thought they would have a doctor in the family when Emily finished school. That may still be the case. Emily is currently working toward her PhD and her study idea is a pretty neat one, but that's probably a story for a different time. Right now, she is still a teacher and you might need to be careful, because she does this job because she's studying you. 

Note: After we talked about this, Emily and I spent some time just talking about the state of education today. We discussed hopes and fears and big take aways. She told me that the first big lesson that a teacher needs to learn is how to control the chaos in the room to make it productive chaos. I think that's a great metaphor for all education right now. We have to control the chaos and make it productive. I think we can do that.