May 2, 2006
Q and A (FAQ for you online types)
By Herm Card
Editor's note: This column chronicles Herm Card's musings in 2005-06, his last year of teaching before retirement. Future installments will be posted here at www.nysut.org/herm.
Add your comments and observations through e-mail to: retiring@nysutmail.org.
In the last week, 17 people have asked me some variety of the question, "How many days?" Apparently they haven't been reading this series enough to know that it's faculty meetings that are my mileposts. Following the last faculty meeting I posted a picture in my room of Frank Crosetti, the former Yankee third-base coach, shaking Mickey Mantle's hand following a home run. Crosetti's number 2 is prominent, to indicate that I have two faculty meetings left.
The frequency of that particular question has left me to ponder the other questions and comments that my impending retirement has brought forth.
Among the leaders, with variations on their themes and the short answers, are:
Q: Will you miss it? A: Yes;
Q: I'll bet you can't wait. A: I can.
Q: Was it hard to decide to retire? A: Yes
Q: Was it hard to decide to retire? No.
Q: Just how long have you been here? A: Approximately 31 years
Q: What are you going to do with yourself? A: Work and not work.
Q: We are going to miss you. A: I will miss you too.
Q: It won't be the same without you. A: No, it'll be different.
Q: What are you going to do with your coffee maker? A: Read my last article.
Q: How long do you think it'll take you to clean out your room? A: I don't know.
Q: Who's going to take your place? A: I don't know.
Q: What do your students think about it? A: I don't know.
Q: What will you miss most? A: Read on.
Q: What will you miss least? A: Read on
Answers, the narrative longer version.
There is no question that I will miss it. I will miss it enormously. It is what I have done for more than 31 years. In fact, I have taught longer than that when I count college baseball coaching and military time. That would run the total to some 38 years. If I wouldn't miss it, the question would have to be asked about how I could do it for this long. Clearly, teaching was a choice I made. It wasn't a confirmed choice for several years though it was more of an entrée to the world of work, an entry-level position into adulthood.
It would have been a difficult decision to retire, though it was in the works. I previously wrote that the key to it was when my ELA teacher colleagues, Penny and Art, told me they were retiring. It became obvious that my comfort level would be seriously affected it I was the only "veteran" teacher left in the 7/8 English department. I'm sure that I would have become increasingly envious of them, to the point where my teaching would have been affected as well. I could not have allowed that to happen.
Of course, it was still difficult to make the decision because I love what I do. Beyond whatever grand statements might be made about the effect teachers (me, in this case) might have on students and the future, I just plain enjoy coming to work every day. I don't really know what my students think of my retirement, because I haven't asked. In fact, I haven't even mentioned that I am retiring. They know, of course, but it really shouldn't matter. They won't be here. They will have had their year in my class and, good or bad, that's all they really should be expected to think about it.
I hope, if they do think about it, they will feel that I was fair and honest, cared enough to set a good example and gave them a chance to learn and prove (and improve) themselves as students and as people.
I know the word "fun" would be there. I know the word "easy" would not, though "easier than it used to be" might. "Summers off?" Not really, though the thinking is still there about having specific vacations.
Apparently, what I will miss is more ephemeral than tangible. I will miss:
• Anything to do with making people smile;
• Open house;
• Writing grants for class projects;
• Class projects;
• Class;
• "Special" people (I will let them know individually, not in public);
• The silence from 6:50 to 7:40;
• The sound of students at 7:40;
• Teaching my students to muse and ponder;
• Teaching them to appreciate the results;
• "Teachable moments" (pardon the jargon);
• Parents who care and show it;
• Finally learning all their names;
• Faculty meetings;
• Barking when a student contributes to my SPCA fund;
• Students laughing at my jokes;
• Students laughing at my jokes even if they don't get them;
• Students laughing;
• Students.
There are also things I will not miss:
• ELA testing;
• ELA scoring;
• Any and all time lost because of state assessments;
• The unbearable jargon of "experts" on education, especially those who don't actually teach;
• Conferences with parents who bring an advocate;
• Conferences with parents who bring someone from a professional tutoring service;
• Conferences with parents who bring along an attitude;
• Conferences with parents who finally become interested in Junior's work with six weeks to go in the year.
• Weekly student reports;
• Calls in the middle of class to tell junior his lunch money is in the office;
• BEDS reports;
• Preferential seating;
• CSE meetings;
• Faculty meetings;
• Rudeness by students who have never been taught the difference;
• Rudeness by parents who HAVE been taught the difference;
• Rudeness;
• Calls to my room to tell me SallyMae is being excused, after she is already gone;
• The thermostat in my classroom that only makes things too hot or too cold.
I plan to occupy my newly found time with worthwhile pursuits. I will never stop being a teacher at heart. I plan to pursue my educational consulting and motivational speaking career. I've been at that for about 15 years, and I love giving teachers the chance to look differently at what they do. I like to think that there is some continuing effect on students here — maybe that touching the future thing. — long-term effects, improvement of the breed. Something like that.
I appreciate the comment that it will not be the same without me. That is good to hear because I know it is a compliment, suggesting that my time here has been worthwhile. I know that it has. I also know that it became far more worthwhile the loner I worked here because I continually learned how to do a job that cannot be taught.
Therefore, whoever is hired to teach in this room should not think that he or she is replacing me. The "new" teacher will simply be filling a vacancy, and needs to fill it in the best way he or she can, occupying this space and adapting it, to be comfortable, to continue to be a place where teaching can be done, but as his or her space, not a space that used to be mine.
It isn't really mine anyway It belongs to those hundreds of students who filed in and out every day to spend some time with me and kept me energized for 30 years. I hope whoever shows up here next is able to enjoy it as much as I have.
Herm Card, a member of the Marcellus Faculty Association, teaches English at Chester S. Driver Middle School in Marcellus.
Herm Card