My department chair told me that at a conference she recently attended, the speaker said, "Good teachers don't take the summer off. Good teachers go to trainings and write curriculum and take classes." Well, guess what Mr. Not-so-motivational Speaker. This good teacher says, "Are you KIDDING me?!"
Flashback to my first day of high school. I'm in Freshman English, totally rocking my purple short-sleeved sweater, tapered jeans, and penny loafers (sans pennies), and my teacher instantly terrifies me when she declares that she will accept absolutely no make-up work regardless of the circumstances of one's absence. What?! Is she completely heartless? Is it too late to go back to the blue and orange (ew!) halls of Bleyl Junior High, where teachers listened when you told them that you had to miss class so you could get the green and red rubberbands on your braces in time for Christmas? I guess I'm not the only one thinking this, because the cool kids (the ones with pennies in their loafers...or maybe the ones not wearing loafers) speak up. "That's not fair! What if we're sick?!" And then, as Ms. McHenry shares the explanation that she hoped someone would ask for, I feel anger well up in me - the kind of fury that emerges when you know you've just come face to face with a very difficult truth that you wish would have been kept from you for just a little bit longer.
In life, you are going to have to make choices. Things don't always work out the way you want them to. You're going to have to decide what is most important to you and sacrifice some things that are less important.
Although I'm not quite sure I would refuse a student the opportunity to make up an assignment because he had the flu and chose to stay home, Ms. McHenry's words still echo in my mind. I don't remember the main characters in Tess of the D'urbervilles (if you read the terrible paper I wrote that year, you'll know that I never really did know the characters all that well), and I'd have to dust off a book or two if you asked me to diagram a sentence, but I know one thing for sure: my summers are precious to me. They are filled with family and friends and rest and God, and if those three months of bliss mean that I have to sacrifice knowledge of the newest phonics game or foldable designed to peak interest in the correct use of commas, so be it! Good teachers teach their students to consider what is most important and to chase after those things. I intend to lead by example!
Well I might be poor, but summer's free for me.
Sister Hazel, Beautiful Thing
