Teacher? Or Ticking Time Bomb?!

The other day, my little sister Mattie, who is five years old and started Kindergarten this fall, came to me with sincere worry about a little boy in her class. She says, "Today I got to be the hand sanitizer holder for my class and give everyone in line some. But, Hayley! There was this boy...and he wiped it all over his face and even in his hair! Why would he do that? He had to pull a clip. I would never wipe hand sanitizer in my hair!"

This made me stop and wonder...so I'm going to college for at least four years so I can clean hand sanitizer out of children's hair? Yes, that's about right!

I honestly think that you have to be a unique type of person to be able to teach children...or even to tolerate some children. I'm one of those rare people who actually WANTS a job at a daycare so I can be harassed by dirty little hands leaving fingerprints all over my jeans, snotted on, maybe even peed on or bitten on occasion. Call me crazy, but yes I want to get paid hardly nothing to teach children everyday, to see the look in their eyes when they have learned a new word or worked a terrifying math problem.

Maybe I was just born this way, being crazy and self-sacrificial to the little people around me, or maybe having my little sisters taught me the joy of watching and helping children grow and learn. I honestly believe that my little sisters have taught me more than I have taught them. By watching them ride their bike for the first time (a skill which I helped them learn, but am still not very good at myself...goes back to the saying "those who can't, teach :)) or read a new book, I learn that everything I set out to do can be accomplished.

Anywho, whatever the reason, in a few years I will be teaching children K thru 6th grade...and probably trying not to be a ticking time bomb.

Hayley

"To learn and never be filled, is wisdom; To teach and never be weary, is love." ~Anonymous