My first year as a teacher was awful.  It was a disaster.  It was awful for me.  It was awful for my students.  Not even the crayfish lived. 

The whole situation was doomed from the start. 

First of all I had to drive for an hour each way in the country to get to the school.

That year my mother got into a car accident.  She was turning left and another car hit her.  Fortunately she lived but she was shook up. 

Back to school.  I was meant to teach math and science.  I don’t think my students learned anything.  Two boys played chess which was a wise move.  Another boy was forever talking.

The janitor didn’t like me.  She said I shuffled my feet.  The principal was a very hard person to get along with. 

I don’t know about the librarian. 

To make a long story short, I lost my job around the end of October.  The parents at the school didn’t seem to like me.  But I liked the students.  I think of them often.

What happened to them?  They must be parents by now.

Life has a silver lining.  I worked at a computer school for adults for a year.  I seemed to do okay when I worked in offices.

And then I worked for St. John Ambulance for several years.  I taught mostly babysitting courses.  It seemed to suit me. There is a whole generation of parents who know how to change a diaper and prevent choking.

Do I regret getting a degree in education? Not really.  I have been able to apply the skills to a number of things.

Do I feel like a real teacher? No.

I wonder how many other people start off in one profession then end up in another.

I wonder how I was accepted into teachers college in the first place. And how come I kept getting job interviews but couldn’t teach.