Why oh why do I do this?
Feb 27th, 2008 by Mark Spahr
When I tell people that I teach in a juvenile correctional facility, I get some interesting responses. It usually starts with something like “wow…that’s really great,” or “good for you!” I wonder sometimes if what they are really thinking is “why would you do something crazy like that?” Sometimes I ask myself that same question. Why do I do what I do, where I do it? I have taught at the prison for almost six years now. It took me a while to get my head wrapped around the idea of teaching here. Sure, it’s not easy working with these kids sometimes. But every now and then I have a moment with a student, or I get a reminder as to why I keep doing this. Last week I got one of those reminders in the form of an email that was forwarded to me by the Superintendent of our facility.
Recently, there was a widely publicized story on the news and in the papers here in Maine about a person who died very suddenly and violently (I am having to generalize here so that I do not violate any confidentiality laws). Let’s call him Thomas. Thomas was a resident at our facility a while ago, although I don’t remember him. The email was from another former resident:
I was a “resident” of your facility a couple years back. I was there for a full 9 months.. for like 6 months of my stay there I had a room mate named Thomas.. anyways I see he died last week.. sad to hear that.. I’m glad I changed my ways.. P.S. tell CHEF SPAHR Steve [named changed] says hi and thanks for everything
Wow. What a reminder of the impact that we as teachers can have on the lives of our students. Most are not this extreme and most you probably never hear about. But we do have an impact. It makes me hope that I doing the things that will have a positive impact on my students and not the opposite. When I am having a tough day at school, I need to remind myself about kids like Steve.
