What if this is my last year in the classroom?
Sometime within next two weeks I will find out if I made it to the interview stage for a free doctorate at Harvard. In early April I will find out if I will be offered a fellowship at Columbia that would enable me to write a book. Both of these are quite unlikely, but the fact I applied to both indicates my willingness to leave classroom teaching. It was something I had to consider before putting in the effort (substantial) to put together both applications.
It is also something that is now rarely far from my mind.
Had I known at the start of the school year that this might well be my last year, i would have been writing with that in mind (there is a publisher who would be very interested in "Teaching, the final year"). While it is in my mind, it has rarely been my main focus.
Let me explain why it has been becoming increasingly more likely.
I still love teaching the kids, being with them, trying to make a difference.
It becomes ever more difficult to teach with integrity, as increasing numbers of anal retentive mandates get imposed upon what we do.
The real reason, one that influenced my exploring alternatives outside the classroom, is that I see schools very much in crisis, and cannot really address that while I remain rooted in the classroom.
But, as I began to realize this week, that cuts several different ways.
