The Eraser Board Jungle

Before I began to teach, I held teachers in awe. In my mind their existence began in the classroom and after school they entered their teacher pods until activated in time for the next class. The idea of becoming one never occurred to me until in mid-life,and at the end of a marriage I was faced with the prospect of finding employment--something secure--the fail-safe-fallback solution--teaching. I wouldn't get rich--but being a person of modest needs, it seemed to be the answer. Sailing through the tests to see if I was "highly qualified" in English, enduring the LAUSD bureaucracy, hey I was ready. Scared to death, but I knew after a period of adjustment, I'd be just fine.

Hardly. The first assignment--almost a full academic year, minus two months--of a line of English classes in an East LA school, where the young teacher quit in frustration. It wasn't pretty. The administration leaves you to your own devices and the students practically rubbed their hands together at the prospect of making it miserable. They succeeded. Although I worked hard, I wasn't sure that I wanted to continue, so I held off on the credentialing program and sucked it in.

Being a creative person--I'd worked in film, acted and painted--I knew I had to do something creative or I would go totally nuts and there'd be a call and it would be on the local news when the ambulance came to take me away when I went medieval on a kid who told me one too many times to f--k off or did a fart noise. Teaching English Grammar and Literature, I decided to see if I could write. It was convenient and I didn't need anything but a computer.

Now it's four years later. After earning my full very very expensive 80 hour a week including teaching full-time credential and being forced to begin at a new school every single frigging year,until this year, I find myself unemployed. I now believe teaching is not all that secure. Plus to hear some in government and in the press, we're a bunch of uncaring slackers. To them I wish an eternity with a class of students handpicked by me. I actually like teaching, but it would be nice to not feel like a widget to be plugged in whatever and where ever. Human beings need consistency in some things.

I have discovered, thanks to teaching, the most fun I've ever had--writing. I'm writing my third book and doing my best to get the other two published. Thank you teaching--at least I'm enjoying the free time even though unemployment has run out and I may soon be shopping for cardboard boxes

This site is for those of us who teach but also believe that teachers can do as well. My focus is writing and I hope to hear from others who teach and write. If you wear two hats--one as teacher and the other in one of the arts, or even if you don't, feel free to contribute.