Why I Love Teaching College

A few posts back, I mentioned that I was born to be a teacher and that I have taught almost every age group.  In fact, I was a full-time teacher of both middle and high school in the Fairfax County Public School System for three years, long enough to realize a few of things.  First--there are a lot of burnt out, uninspiring and just plain lazy teachers out there, not fun people to have as colleagues.  Second--teaching is so exhausting that it is not a good career for a mom, at least, not for this mom.  My patience ran out at the dismissal bell most days.  And third--I was working twice as hard as my students were which seemed a bit silly since I already knew Spanish.
Because I was teaching on a provisional certification, I was required to fulfill my educational requirements within three years.  I needed about four classes in the ed school in order to be certified.  I did not meet the requirements, taught my three years and left for greener pastures.  I confess that the main reason I did that was stubborn pride.  I had worked hard to become an expert in my subject area.  Not many high school Spanish teachers have Master's degrees.  I do.  I also spent quite a bit of time at KU learning how to teach.  I took classes through the Spanish department and worked on committees with other TAs.  Truthfully, I was indignant that the state wanted me to waste time and money on something I had already proven I knew how to do.  So, I took a break from teaching and went to work at Mary Washington Hospice until Mia was born.

When we moved to Houston, I saw an ad for the local community college.  I met the chair of the modern languages department who originally hired me to teach ESL.  While I truly enjoyed my ESL students and their phenomenal work ethic, I opted to take only Spanish classes after that.  I have taught almost every semester since.  

I ask myself sometimes why it gives me such satisfaction to be employed as an adjunct professor.  It's not the money though Chris and I tend to spend my elastic paycheck ten times over in our conversations about nice-to-haves.  It may be the status, the fact of having a job and "not just being a stay-at-home mom" (sorry if that sounds horrible).  I think it's definitely the excitement of leading a kind of double life--laundry goddess by day, brilliant and charming Spanish professor by night.  Whatever compels me to sign on semester after semester despite our busy schedule, one thing is certain--I love teaching college.

College students are incredibly diverse.  I teach 19 year olds, 45 year olds and 70 year olds.  I teach anyone who wants to learn Spanish for a job, for a degree or just for fun.  My students are responsible for themselves.  Their presence is voluntary.  This is huge.  I do not hold their hands or call them to remind them to please do their homework.  I do my job and I expect them to do theirs.  If they don't, I don't sweat it.  While that may sound harsh, in practice, it means that we can have a lot of fun.  We sing, we have "café time", we play games and everyone can go right back on task with no problem.  Though we have a syllabus and rules of the college, I treat my students like the adults they are and assume the best until something happens to change that.  It usually doesn't.  Instead, each class grows into a community of learning.  We help each other, support each other and laugh a lot.  A beautiful thing.

And I suppose that's why I love teaching college.