Despite popular opinion, teaching a hard job

I have heard so many people express the opinion that teaching is an easy job, given all the holidays. Sharing some memories of my teaching career may give you a different perspective.

I remember my first day of teaching at Creighton Mine Public School. I was so excited. The 34 kids were great. Special days like Halloween, Remembrance Day and Christmas, lent themselves to planning enjoyable activities.

It was so enjoyable to see the pupils having fun and learning at the same time. One of my pupils became very ill, so I went to her home to help her keep up with the class.

I got married during the Christmas holidays of 1963, and returning to school in January 1964, I wondered whether the children would remember my new name. I printed my name on the blackboard in large letters. It didn’t take them long.

Sometimes my young pupils confided something that had happened at home. I had to impress upon them that this was private and should not be talked about to their classmates.

In 1967, I was teaching Grade 3 at Naughton Public School, where I had just 21 pupils. This small class made it possible to do many interesting activities, teaching the pupils about our wonderful country. It was Centennial Year. The song “Ca-na-da, We Love You” reverberated throughout the school.

Near the end of June, while we were playing outside, a nine-year-old girl collapsed. I noticed immediately that her lips were blue and her skin was almost translucent.

One of the children ran to get the principal who carried her inside and called her mother. At Memorial Hospital surgery was performed, unsuccessfully. The child died. What an unbelievable shock. Her mother told us that she had a congenital heart defect unknown to the family.

I really enjoyed teaching in the primary level. Children are unpredictable and unexpected things happened occasionally. One example of this was when one of my pupils bit the recess supervising teacher on the arm to get her attention.

Another time, a little girl said, “Mrs. Fex, Ricky took out his eye.” I couldn’t imagine what she was talking about, but Ricky had a glass eye, unknown to me – and he had indeed taken it out of its socket.

I sent him to the principal and he returned with a large gauze pad over the socket and the eye in a small bag to take home. He began to do this more frequently, until the principal called his mother and it stopped.

Another little boy liked the feel of my nylons and would run his hand up and down while we were in reading group. Cleaning up children’s vomit happened now and then. I couldn’t just leave it there.

Nothing in my teacher’s training had prepared me for any of these events.

Toward the end of my teaching career, in another school, the children were constantly challenging me. A girl in Grade 7 told me that she was going to stab me and, ”throw my organs all over the yard at my house.” Those were her exact words. In the office, shaking like a leaf, I told the principal. We called her mother who, to her credit, insisted that we call the police. The OPP officer arrived quickly. He spoke with me, the principal and the girl.

He asked me if I wanted to lay charges against this 15-year-old. Knowing this girl’s history, I said “NO.” Later I realized this was a big mistake on my part. She needed to understand that uttering a death threat was a serious crime.

I soon learned that many things happened with children which were totally unexpected and I had to deal with them in the best way I knew how. It was never boring.

Does teaching still seem like an easy job to you? Have you had to deal with any of the above situations at your place of work?

Erna de Burger-Fex is a writer and retired teacher.