For Female Teachers Getting Ready for School

                  For Female Teachers Getting Ready for School

               Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 7/28/19

            Ladies, I know what you’re facing, and I only wish to encourage you as you get back to a task that shapes not just individuals but nations.

            First, a bit of personal history.  I knew when I was 15 that I wanted to be a teacher, thanks to about 50 splendid classmates in the class of ’62 and our incredible teachers and coaches.  My classmates were a mix of town kids and country kids.  They were full of life, and seemed to be happy.  President Eisenhower was smiling down on us until President John F. Kennedy succeeded him, affirming our youth and daring us to dream.  My classmates, all of them, made me want to teach high school or college and be around people like them for the rest of my life.

             I did enter the teaching profession. Only once did I consider leaving it.  Quite a few surveys have indicated that the chief reason teachers leave teaching is students and the chief reason they stay in teaching is students.

            In the late 70s I seriously considered leaving teaching, not because of low pay, but because of students.  Since I had been a substitute school bus driver my senior year in high school, had driven trucks during college, and even knew how to back a four-wheel trailer with a tractor (try it), I figured I could drive a Greyhound bus.  To the Marietta Square I went, got a bus driver’s application from the downtown bus station, filled it out but threw it away, hoping the next year’s students would be more teachable.  They were.  I continued to teach seniors alongside predominately female colleagues.

  If you are offended by my singling out females or if you think I am already headed toward condescension or stereotyping, you might want to stop reading now.  I for one just don’t cater to the prevailing sexual chaos that denies the obvious and wondrous differences between males and females, that denies the reality of gender and scoffs at the mention of femininity and masculinity.  You probably know what I’m trying to say since teachers are probably positioned better than anyone else to observe cultural change and to keep a solid grip on the pulse of the times.

            While male teachers, coaches, and administrators need encouragement also, my interest in talking to females in education has a historical basis.  I have 10 sisters and have worked with females all of my life, so, sorry … but I have a heart for women and deep sympathy for the struggles they face.

            Let me shoot down a myth embraced by many males, particularly a few of my fellow conservative male friends.  A few times I have heard men refer to the “feminization of education” and rue the fact that our children and youth are taught mainly by women.  “Kids need some men teachers too,” they asserted.

            And of course students do.  But not because women can’t handle smarty teenage boys. One reason I’ve admired my female colleagues is their ability to dress down a towering, high school boy whenever such action was needed.  Women teachers are tough.  They don’t feminize anything.  They effectively mix grace with strength.  Any time I’ve seen a female teacher confronting a male student in the hall, I’ve hung around (sorry, I was taught to be protective) to see if things were ok.  Not only was I never needed; I even borrowed a line from a short, first year teacher and used it countless times: “Young man, you’d better explain yourself real fast.”

            You may be married or not.  You may have children or not.  But if you do have a family, I know what you will start doing in the next few days.  You will teach (and often contend with) children or teenagers all day long, then go home and serve your family, and then sit down at 9:30 to plan or review for the next day of teaching.  You will get very tired, but you will know all the while that you are shaping individuals and nations.

 Teachers actually never know whom they are teaching.  I didn’t know I was teaching the future Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court or a druggie who would become a faithful husband, father, and a successful small business owner.

            Go forth, ladies, and help us address the great unraveling that almost every nation is experiencing.  Girded with knowledge, an appreciation for beauty, a zeal for excellence, and a love for children and youths, you are needed to turn boys into men, girls into ladies, and chaos into civilization.

            Good luck!

Roger Hines

7/24/19