Considering the amount of education required, the responsibilities involved, and the starting salary
range, it's little wonder why the teaching profession doesn't draw more of the nation's elite minds.
Those not drawn to the field are often forced into the career temporarily as a means to a paycheck
rather than an end. Entrusting our children's education to someone who finds the classroom so
meaningless is an extremely dangerous proposition.
On the bright side of this topic, there is one individual who, very early in life, decided to become
a teacher. On the road to that goal she encountered obstacles that exhibited overwhelming odds for
failure. How she overcame those obstacles is a truly remarkable story worth telling.
Gail's first grade teacher inspired her with the original idea of becoming an educator. After
finishing eleventh grade, she was offered a summer job at the local primary school helping special
education reading students. She jumped at the opportunity to test the teaching waters before taking
the plunge itself. The experience confirmed her love for cultivating young minds and the children's
eager responses to her rare display of special attention were impressive. When the job ended in the
late summer, her goal to become a teacher was set in stone. She had no idea, at the time, that the
road to attainment of her goal was spattered with boulders.
The first obstacle involved being from a poor family with addiction problems. Gail was the oldest
of five children and her parents placed her in the position of occasionally being substitute
parents to her siblings. The responsibility might have tempered a lesser determined individual but
Gail was not seeking a superficial whim. It was a deep, driving urge of destiny.
The next hurdle came into view when she met and fell in love with her future husband. By
Christmas of that year, the couple were talking of marriage. As the enormity of paying for tuition and
expenses grew more apparent, she decided that going to college full time was out of the question.
She needed another avenue to success. With her fiance, they devised a plan involving college and
marriage. She would attend night classes after the wedding plus work full time during the day to help
pay for courses and family expenses. The only doubt was whether she could handle marriage, work,
and school simultaneously.
The wedding took place one month after high school graduation and night classes at Middle
Georgia College began soon after the honeymoon. She also accepted a full time job working at the
primary school as a para-professional during the day. Two of her girlfriends made similar plans for
school and marriage, and they followed Gail down the aisle of matrimony and into the night classes.
These young ladies who chose marriage and college together, did so with full intentions of
completing their needed schooling. Some did, others did not. Gail's own dreams almost crashed
for several reasons.
The birth of Gail's first child in 1976, interrupted her schooling. That child's sudden death, 16
months later, shattered her ability to continue. She dropped out of school. The unexpected strain
rocked the marriage and the resulting emotional storms corroded their once loving relationship. Her
husband, locked in grief, became a living monster. Adding winds to the waves, his minor hearing
loss became a major problem. He was going deaf. The Doctor's conclusion was that nothing could
be done to correct the problem and the diagnosis was all but fatal. His serious bouts with
depression made study all but impossible for Gail. Gail's dreams of returning to class and becoming
a teacher faded into the basement of her tumbling world.
She became pregnant a second time, long before the pain and internal confusion surrounding the
first child's death had sufficiently abated. The husband who couldn't handle the strain of a suddenly
silent world, the man who couldn't regain his emotional feet, the monster who sought relief in a bottle
of alcohol, and the father who never wanted to see another child in his home, had inadvertently
placed Gail in a new battle. A lone fight for survival.
For several months, Gail lingered between walking out of the marriage, possibly placing an iron
lock on her dream of teaching, or staying on to fight. She chose to stay and fight because fighting
was in her blood. She convinced her husband to seek professional help and the effort began paying
dividends. The storm began to ease.
When the second child was born, Gail's life seemed to take an upswing. Returning to classes
became a driving force but by the time things fell into place for her to do so, three years had passed.
None the less, she plunged back into the curriculum with a new determination and drive.
The routine settled into a monotony of going to work at school, going home to a husband, son, and
household, and then going to school at night, to work. She struggled under the heavy loads, racing
from books to baby to husband, but amazingly kept her grades on the honor list. She finished the
first phase of her goal and received an associate degree from Brewton Parker College in Mt.
Vernon, Georgia.
While examining the next step in her schooling, Gail worried over the heavier study loads and
tight finances. The curriculum included three months where she would be forced to quit her job as a
para-professional and do student teaching as required for the degree. To make matters worse, none
of the required early childhood education courses were being offered locally. She would have to
drive 40 miles at night on deserted stretches of highway to attend classes in another city. With her
husband's encouragement, she plunged ahead but the obstacles were still falling.
Settling into the new habitual was interrupted by her father's suicide. Three days after the funeral she
took her quarterly exams and passed. The course title was, "Death and Dying." The strain was
tremendous and she was again forced to drop classes.
A short time later, her husband's doctor wanted to try an operation on him, an expensive one. A
new electronic device would be implanted that offered hope for restoring partial hearing to his now
silent world. The arrangements were made and the operation took place in August 1987. The
attempt restored some usable hearing in his life. Gail, encouraged by one success story out of so
few, refocused her attentions back on school. The light at the end of the tunnel grew brighter as she
stepped back into the classroom.
On a Sunday afternoon, June 5, 1988, Gail crossed the finish line, a stage at Mercer University
in Macon, Georgia, and accepted a diploma. Seated in the audience was her eight year old son and
her husband and other family members. It was the end to 15 years of fighting for a dream. While
watching the proceedings, her husband fought to control his tears, his guilt, and the anger within his
own self at having been such a stumbling block.
The following September after graduation, she proudly stepped to the front of a Kindergarten
class, the teacher. It was the fulfillment of a lifetime dream. Her teaching career had, at long last,
begun. So, Happy Graduation, to my darling little teacher, Gail. A woman I've loved and cherished
for 15 years. My wife.
November 1996
Teacher © 1996 Wellston Publishing Group
All Rights Reserved
