why i teach

students ask me all of the time why i teach.  like it is such a ludicrous thing to do.  who would ever want to do that, they say.  not with words, but with their faces all scrunched up in half horror, half disgust. 

adults ask me all of the time.  usually it is quickly followed by, oh you're brave, by which they really mean you are really stupid. 

and today in an allllllldddaaaaayyyyy meeting of scientists and administrators and college reps and community reps they asked a different question.  Did you imagine this is what you would be doing when you grew up? 

never. 

i didn't line up my toys and teach them to read.  i didn't dream of having my own chalkboard.  i didn't organize learning stations around my bedroom.  the closest i came was hoarding all of the books i could find in my house, labeling them and making my own library checkout system.  that wasn't for instruction, that was simply my compulsive organizing. when my high school aptitude test came back with my top three career choices as meteorologist, psychologist and teacher, i laughed.   like a, yea right, teach?  me?  i'm sure my teacher thought the exact same thing. 

those little white things are termites.  i'm a science teacher.  sometimes i do things that are gross.

i didn't laugh all day today.  not a chuckle.  not a giggle.  not even a wry smile.  an entire day without laughter! 

and that is why i teach.  kids make me laugh every single day.  even on the worst days where my lesson sucks, my head hurts, i feel like i am being swallowed whole by papers and every person in the room wants to talk at the same time; someone will make me laugh. 
like yesterday when a kid innocently reads orgasm instead of organism out loud. 

and that is how i want to live my life; with laughter!  even if it is sophomoric humor, i crave laughter.