Posted September 4 2007 by Brett Kugler
When does the school day end?
The school day never ends for a teacher. No matter what society may think about the position, only a teacher could possibly know what the field of education is. From the outside, it appears like a job that offers summers off and a work day that ends before other jobs finish. However, the job of an educator extends well past the walls of the school. Please don’t take this as a complaint as I love my job. In fact, Jewish educators in particular have one of the most wonderful opportunities in the world. We get to live in the same community as a great deal of our students. This is without a doubt, one of the biggest blessings to me as a person that is personally involved with chinuch (education). Allow me to explain what I am talking about.
I have been a special education teacher for five years now and have worked in three different schools. The first school was an orthodox day school, the second a non-Jewish private school, and the third which is a Jewish community day school. Growing up in a worldly but orthodox home, I was familiar with the students in all of the different schools. However, if you had told me that I would work in these schools as a teacher when I got older, I probably would have laughed and went on with my day.
Last school year which was my first at this community day school, was an incredible eye opener for me. I was incredibly struck by one experience in particular, though there were many that stuck out. After working very hard for several months to establish a good relationship with my new students, I started to notice that they weren’t looking at me like I was the token “ortho-jew” as they so lovingly referred to me at the beginning of the year. I was starting to show them that it could be cool to be Jewish. I really knew that this was true after walking home from shul one shabbos. I had just come out of shul with my wife, my newborn son, and a bunch of friends. As we reach the corner to turn away from the shul and start walking home I see a car come whizzing by. Three heads stick out the window and with a unified shout I hear “Good Shabbos Mr. K.” Then the car was gone. Quite shocked my friends looked at me like they had never seen anything like that in their lives. After all, what would a bunch of Jewish kids be doing in a car on shabbat.” I looked at them proudly and said, “Those are my students.” What my friends did not realize was that these kids did not come from a background like they did. These students 3 months prior would have driven right by and never said a word. However, because of talks in the halls and in the classroom, these kids were impacted. They felt the urge to announce that they were Jewish. It was at this moment that I realized that the school day never ends, and that I could not be happier about being a “full time” teacher (in every sense of the word).
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