The teachers and staff are back -- and they look happy!

There have been many mornings this summer that my daily running route has taken me through the school campus. I like being up there when no one is around, when the buildings are unlit and the plaza empty. It makes me feel like the school is hibernating, restoring itself, replenishing its resources, waiting for fall. (Of course, as a taxpayer, I only wish the school could replenish its resources merely by “hibernating.” But this is just its appearance, not what I really think happens.) I like the idea that the school campus not only empties out but sleeps all summer, a long rejuvenating rest for the buildings, the infrastructure, the systems, the lawns.

And not least, of course, the faculty and staff. Classes don’t start again until next Tuesday, and although I knew the teachers had a couple days of meetings before the kids returned, I was surprised to run up past the campus yesterday morning and see the parking lot half-filled with cars. Even though it was only seven-thirty, as I ran by, a couple of teachers were just getting out of their cars, briefcases in hand and coffee cups balanced on the roof as they reached into the back seats for additional supplies.

They smiled and waved at me and looked genuinely pleased to be there. They didn’t look rueful about returning. They looked energetic and cheerful and happy. And this is just what I love about them. It’s so easy for me to be cynical, to wonder how they can choose to devote themselves to hordes of children, day after day…only because it isn’t what I would choose to do. But to them, it’s not a consolation prize or a necessary obligation; it’s their chosen career.

They’re presumably just as devoted to teaching as I am to writing, and even if I half-expect them to approach the new school year with a mixture of apprehension and misery after their summer vacation, it shouldn’t be any great surprise if at least some – maybe even most – teachers look forward to the first day of classes just as much as I look forward to the article I’ll begin researching later today. Years ago I remember seeing a coffee cup that said “The three best reasons to be a teacher…June, July, August.” But the pace at the school yesterday morning reminded me that it’s not really a very funny joke – indeed, it’s a little bit offensive -- because in my experience, that’s not how most teachers feel. They aren’t in the profession for the time off; they’re in it for the time on.

As a parent, I’m so grateful that this is the case, especially as I look ahead to sending the kids off to school next Tuesday. Holly’s teacher has been through the first-day-of-school routine for close to thirty years, I believe. The fact that he can remain interested in each new set of children amazes me. And yet he seems to. Tim’s teachers in the middle school range in years of experience, but from what I’ve heard, none of the middle school teachers at our school strikes parents as jaded. Teaching our children is what they choose to do, and even if I still have the capacity to be surprised by their enthusiasm, they’re ready to start the semester. I thank them all for it, and I wish them a very happy and successful new school year.