Just to think I wake up and go to school instead of work. What a wonderful thought to be growing older, but yet still going to work at a place where everybody is young. I wake up in the morning eager to get to school and see all the students and my friends. On the other hand, I still feel like a child waiting for Santa as Christmas vacation rapidly approaches. I love school but still get excited with the thought of a potential snow day, a late start, an assembly, or any other activity that breaks up the day. Teaching keeps me thinking young, feeling young, and acting young. Finally, how about the summers in New England? While the rest of the world is still working, I frequent the beaches and enjoy what makes New England a haven for summer vacationers.
As inviting as these benefits are, they are superficial and really have little do with what makes teaching the best job in America. So, what is so grand about the teaching profession? How about the fact that teaching is one of the few professions where the opportunity exists to make a real difference in someone's life, and inevitably, a real difference in the world we live in. What a reward to think you might be able to have such an impact on a student that they decided to change a bad habit. Maybe your influence was so strong that one of your students decided it was time to find a different group of friends. Maybe you can celebrate the fact that a student of yours decided to pursue a college career, when they were all but convinced that college wasn't for them.
Yes, teaching can be trying, and if it is done with all one's heart, it is always hard work. Many days, like an athlete or an actor, we are disappointed by our performance. We are upset by what we said and how those words had surely hurt someone, or by what we should have said, but failed to. We wonder how our class seemed to go so astray, how the lesson plan somehow got abandoned, or how personal problems impacted our ability to be effective that day. For many, extracurricular activities are part of our common day. Many times supper may be missed, family events take place without our presence, and the thought of a hurting student or ineffective teaching day captures our entire evening. Days and nights sometimes run together and school becomes a second home. It is during these times that we wonder why we are teaching, and if the classroom is our destiny.
Then comes the student that thanks you for attending their athletic event. Then comes a student's visit to your room at the end of the day to utter a simple good bye or have a nice day. Then comes the student who tells you much you have impacted their life. Then comes the letter that tells you how much your advice is cherished and how one of your students is making a change in their life based on something you said or did. Then comes the parent who tells you how much you mean to their child, how their child is considering being a teacher because of you, or how you are their child's hero. Finally, comes the smile from the back of the classroom from someone you were sure you weren't reaching whose countenance affirms an unequivocal "thanks".
It is then that we are reassured of the honor and privilege that goes along with being a teacher. What more noble or rewarding profession can we hold than one in which we are continually reassured that we are making a difference. It has been often said that our students will remember the lessons we teach about life far longer than the lessons we teach on any given subject matter. What is not often spoken about is the life lessons that our students teach us. For instance, the lesson on the importance of resiliency, as many keep bouncing back from misfortune and mishaps when it would have been easier or more convenient to quit. How about the lesson of compassion, as students so frequently demonstrate their empathy towards others who are suffering or who are just a little different or just a little down. The lesson on faith, especially when the circumstances in many students' lives suggest that they have somehow been betrayed, but yet they stand proud and firm in their beliefs. But most importantly, the lessons of love, and the reassurance that we are all creatures of God that need to be loved.
For one, I go to bed every night knowing I have the best job in America. And I have the students at the Central Catholic High School to thank for that.
Vin Pastore
2/16/2003
This reflection was resent to the staff of Central Catholic High School, Lawrence, MA this May, 2026, as Vincent Pastore concluded thirty years of educational ministry at CCHS. He signed off, “with love, Vin.”
