Sunday, April 02, 2006

Determined to Teach and the Honor of Men

This past Tuesday (Mar. 28th) I had a job interview. It was for a school in the general vicinity of where I was raised and am currently living. The position was for a high school English teacher for next fall. They need too hire a new English teacher for two reasons: 1. one of the teachers currently teaching some English classes is actually a home economics teacher and since next year they are expanding their “home education” curriculum, she won’t be teaching English. 2. the State of Illinois is now requiring all high school seniors to have four years of English before they graduate so there will be more students taking English next year. My interview went really well. I got along with the two gentleman interviewing me and they were very impressed with my teaching portfolio (let me tell you, it was wonderful to have someone other than a friend or family member look at that thing—I put so much work into it). I’m kind of hoping I get this job. If I do, it would (hopefully) allow me to get a place to live in for next year before the summer, keep me from antagonizing over what I should do during the summer, and allow me to still act in some plays next year. But, if it doesn’t work out, there are still other options.

For instance, on Wednesday (Mar. 29th) I went to Washington University in St. Louis to interview for Teach For America (TFA). TFA is a highly selective program that places recent college graduates and other young adults in schools where there are teaching shortages, mainly in inner-city schools and very rural areas such as in the Appalachians. Those who are selected and offered a position agree for a minimum two year commitment. If I’m selected for the program, I’m hoping to be assigned to either Ohahu, Hawaii or Phoneix, Arizona. I learned this past year that I really don’t like Winter much anymore, so if I’m going to move far away I want to go somewhere where it’s warm all year long. I’ve never been to Hawaii or Arizona so it would be a grand adventure. I’ve known enough people from those places to know that if I move there, I might end up staying in either one of those places permanently.

As for the TFA interview process, the morning started off with each of we 12 interviewees teaching our 5-minute lesson. You had exactly 5 minutes to teach a lesson you had prepared before hand. My lesson went well, though I wasn’t able to make any concluding remarks. I did a thing with prefixes and suffixes. Following the lesson, we were divided in groups and had a problem solving session (also timed). Then we listened to the two interviewers talk for about 30-minutes. Paperwork was taken care of. Next we had an individual problem-solving assignment. Finally, the morning came to a close with the assignment of our personal interview times. I ended up with the last interview time of the day, which wasn’t too bad because my interview ended up lasting about 45 minutes when it was supposed to be around 20; I think the lady interviewing me was fascinated by my background.

I still don’t know where I’ll be in the fall, but I’m pretty sure I do know what I’ll be doing. I’m determined to teach.
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I may sound sexist saying this, but I was wondering today: do women have any idea what honor is? You talk about honor with a man and he knows what you are talking about. You try to talk about honor with a woman and she thinks you’re either having delusions of grandeur or that you’re either stubborn or proud. It is true that honor might seem like stubbornness, pride, or a combination of the two, but honor isn’t any of those things. It is something completely different. Honor is something that all men have, though sometimes it is beaten and battered from us. Honor is the reason that men who normally never shed a tear fall apart while watching RUDY or BRAVEHEART or FIELD OF DREAMS. It’s not that those movies are sad. It’s because they all have something to do with honor.

When Adam realized he and Eve were naked in the Garden, I don’t think he was ashamed because he was naked. I think he was ashamed because he realized and understood that he had done something dishonorable before God.

Females have sometimes asked me, “Why do you do such-and-such?” or, “Why didn’t you do such-and-such?” or “Why are you like that?” The answer many times is simply, “It was the honorable thing to do.” The usual reply from the female in question, “I just don’t understand that.”

Can women understand honor? What do you think?

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