This is a comment I left on another teacher's blog. My mind is now racing with thoughts that I don't think I'll be able to articulate the way in which I want.

I loved this post. It spoke volumes of the wonderful person you are. As needing as inner-city schools are, I think too many people are ignoring the fact that "regular" schools need great teachers, too. You've touched on some really wonderful points about why these students need love and support from teachers. I would go even further to add that many of these types of parents think they are great parents, but really they aren't actively a part of their child's life and simply buying his or her love. Of course, that's not all parents, but I see this time and time again.

Go where you feel you are called. I did the same thing. Teaching at an inner city school wasn't my calling, but working with poor adults from all over the world is. Some people may say I took the easy way out, but I couldn't give a rat's ass about what they say. All I know is that I leave work everyday feeling fulfilled by what I do and I see the powerful effect I've had on other people's lives (people who are just as deserving as inner city kids).

If someone really thinks that there needs to be more teachers in inner city schools because only those students need love and encouragement, then that person should start teaching there.

I have some strong opinions about teaching. I won't ask for any apologizes for what I feel and believe. There are, of course, many things wrong with education today, but rather than simply give lip service to my frustrations, at least I have the balls to get out there each day and do something to change it. Rather than simply using words to express my opinions, I chose to change careers and do something about it.

Am I proud to be a teacher? You bet your ass I am. Am I proud of all my fellow teachers? I'm not that stupid. But my belief is that if you don't like something, you get in there and do something about it. Words can only go so far, but action can change the world.

I started out years ago in my youthful twenties (actually, I was 21) as a teacher. While working on my secondary credential in English, I taught a full year at a somewhat nearby high school. This school had an enormous population of gang members and other neglected children. My bleeding heart wanted to help them, but I was too young and naive to see how teaching English literature could help these students. I was 22 when I earned my credential, and 22 when I swore I would never teach again.

A few years passed and I dipped my toes into the teaching pool again, enticed by its soothing wetness of summer vacations and weekends/holidays off. I'd earned my MA degree at 23 and chose to teach at the junior college level. There I realized I was working with many of the same types of students, only now they'd realized they wanted more for themselves. It was a dichotomous atmosphere: older, more mature students who valued their education, in the same room as young students who were only there because they didn't know what else to do with their lives and they'd never learned this information in high school. I felt like I had structure supporting me, with a quarter system and financial obligations wrapped around my little finger. I enjoyed pushing my students to work hard for their grades (though, looking back now, I was probably a bit too hard of a grader). While I enjoyed this area of teaching, I met instructor after instructor who worked part time at numerous institutions in order to pay the bills without qualifying for benefits. I felt I was too young to throw my life away as a freeway flyer.

I'd left the field all together, living in various locations around the country, experiencing life from different perspectives. I'd always wondered what publishing was like and gave it a shot, only to discover that it wasn't something I wanted to do at all. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, but the one nagging thought I had was that I wanted my life to have value in helping others.

That's when life changed. I was ready to make that commitment to others. Life took a turn at the beginning of 2004, when I was still 28 (though it seems like lifetimes ago). An aunt suggested I teach where she did her night time gig. The AP called me right away asking for an interview. Although I was in no mood to work again (after having quit my last job and relocated to my home town), I went in to see this woman. I was hired on the spot.

I'd grown up in this town and had never heard of this school. I didn't know what adult education was. I'm now an expert. Adult education is a step between high school and junior college. There are many more adult schools out there than you realize; I was certainly surprised. We are part of the local school district, providing free classes to the public (over the age of 18). There are a multitude of programs we offer, from English as a Second Language, to high school diploma/GED, to older adult classes helping seniors stay active and feel important, to vocational programs to train people to begin a new career. I work with students in the first two categories. Because we are a part of the local school district, money from the government reaches us last (as it should be), and we therefore have to find other ways in which to pay for these classes for our students. This means that adult education is extremely unstable. I constantly worry about whether my classes will be shut down, but that is the nature of the game. So many people want to improve their lives, but have difficulties in doing so, be those difficulties financial or other obligations with which they are faced. The majority of our students are very poor, many of whom are on government assistance but who want to stand on their own two feet with pride.

Some people might say that I've taken the easy way out, working with adults rather than children, particularly children in the inner city schools. I say that people are entitled to their own opinions, but that I wonder why those who complain have not gone into those same schools to try to make a difference themselves. I want a job with personal satisfaction, one that makes me feel I'm somehow making this world a better place. Sure, I have days where I feel like I should have just stayed in bed because I was so unsuccessful in the classroom, but those are infrequent. All people need someone to act as their cheerleader, to encourage them and motivate them when they most need it. This is something I'm good at doing, something that gives me great pleasure to see the changes it makes in the lives of others. My students may be adults, but god how similar to children they can be. They have insecurities just like teenagers. It is my job to not only impart knowledge, but to remind them time and time again that they can do it. Does this aspect of the job ever get redundant and exhausting? Of course; I'm no superhuman. But it is so worth it for those moments when a student tells me, after trying to understand an algebra problem for an hour, that she understands and her face lights up with pride. Those moments make all the bullshit and bureaucracy worth it.

Does it matter than the majority of my students are poor? Nope. I wouldn't care if they were filthy rich; they'd still be at my school for a reason. It is my job to help them understand that reason and to help them fulfill their dreams and achieve their goals. I can think of no better job in the world than teaching. I don't need the public's adoration or millions of dollars; I have something more valuable than that: pride. I feel pride when I hear my students tell me how they shared what they learned in my class with their children. I feel pride when I see them learning about the foreign culture of a classmate, realizing that our cultures really aren't as different as we think they are. I feel pride when my students leave the classroom every day saying "thank you teacher."

So, rather than complain or tell other people what to do, I choose to get in there each day and change what I don't like by improving things one person at a time. I know I won't be able to radically overhaul the educational system of this country, but at least I'm trying to do something about it instead of giving lip service to a cause I know nothing about.