Hey, teach!

I was a preemie baby. I was born six weeks early by c-section, weighing in at 4 pounds at one week of age when I went home. My mom, possibly misunderstanding the doctor's instructions, handled me as little as possible and did not allow anyone else to touch me for a year. She apparently had a fear of contagious diseases for me, although I was probably the healthiest child ever born. Just small.

Neither of my parents liked to read out loud to me, so at age three they taught me to read for myself. I haven't stopped being a voracious reader yet. At four, I was old enough to attend school, since I would be five in September. The school said no, I was too small and would not be able to keep up. My mom, reasons unclear, insisted that they test me. All I knew was my mom had to talk to someone at the school about my older brother and I was to go with the librarian. I remember this visit. I read to the librarian from what were probably third grade books. We did some work on paper, some basic math, too, if I remember correctly. I started school at age four.

By age five, all I wanted to be when I grew up was a teacher. I wanted to teach math or reading. Eventually, my desire was to teach math to upper grades. I started college with the intention of doing just that. However, after two years as a math major, the counselors in the education department told many of us that there were too many teachers looking for jobs, and most of us should change our majors. I did just that, albeit reluctantly. I never lost the desire to teach.

In my 30s I began martial arts classes. I ended up teaching judo and being involved in many other disciplines. I loved the teaching. Watching a "victim" fall as planned can put a real smile on the person doing the throwing. A good fall can be a beautiful, graceful thing.

After a long career as a social worker, which was not really a chosen field for me, I find myself volunteer teaching computer classes to senior citizens. I have mentioned this before, and I love the classes. Most of our students have never used a computer at all. Digital phones petrify them. Calculators are a mystery. I do my best to remove the fears, get some creativity going, and get them over the digital divide. Onewoman whined to me that her husband used her computer to store pictures of race cars, which annoyed her. I taught her how to change the names of files. That was the only time I ever saw her smile.

So why am I not a professional teacher now? No certification. But wait, I could teach in a college right? Sure, but what? I have a bachelor's degree in sociology (so I could help the ex get through pharmacy school, I took the easy way out for myself). I have an all-but-thesis master's degree in sociology. I have a complete, started from fresh, master's degree in business administration. My career was social work. So what do I teach? I have no interest in sociology any more, even if I remembered all of the theories. I was not a manager, and I never took a class in social work.

However, yesterday in my Introduction to the Internet class, an elderly gentleman, who owns his own successful business but comes to us because he doesn't want his employees to know he can't send an email on his own, learned to change the background on his desktop. Pretty basic stuff. His face was lit up like a five-year-old's on Christmas. How can I give that up?