Jeannette Providence,
English Language Arts

You have an opportunity. You may get a paycheck, but that’s not the real paycheck. The real paycheck is touching the lives of young people and having an opportunity to touch into the future. Then from time-to-time, when you least expect it, to see one of your students and have them even remember, number one – you, and then acknowledge you. I think that is biggest payoff, where you have actually had an opportunity to touch the life of somebody. That is, for me, the biggest payoff of it. The hours are hard. The work is hard because it’s so diverse, you are dealing with humans. There are some easy aspects of it, but a lot of it is in-flight corrections. You are making adjustments as you go along to try to help the students. The most important part of it: if you don’t love young people and if you don’t love the population you are working with, don’t hurt them. Don’t waste your time on it. But if you love people and you want to touch the young people, because it’s going to be difficult, then this is the job for you. This is the job for you.