The verb "to teach"

I love teaching!

In just the last week or so, Charlie and I have been back in the classroom. I did a lesson on writing for a friend and former colleague who wanted his AP World History students to get off on the right foot as they ready themselves for the spring exam. And then both of us worked with the cast of the upcoming spring production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," teaching and refreshing them on Shakespeare's verse, as well as working with small groups of actors on particular scenes in the play. It has been a complete pleasure.

It reminds us that we both deeply enjoy the rigor and rewards of working with young people on something worth learning. And what has made it particularly pleasurable, is that we park our car, walk straight across campus and get to work with students who were attentive and eager to learn. The enervating red tape of a typical high school day was nowhere in sight. No administration-mandated surveys, no fun and games at lunch time, no leadership kids interrupting class with the latest reminder about some dress-up day, no strange schedule for WASC or career day or late start, no call slips or campus security guards arriving to summon a student . . . none of the stuff that make up the gantlet that every teacher runs every teaching day throughout the school year.

And that is just a sampling of the distractions that impede a teacher and reduce the actual teaching that occurs on any given day. No wonder so little real education goes on during a day, or week or whole school year. To tell you the truth, a teacher succeeds in spite of all these oh-so important distractions. All that talk about "support" is generally just cant.

Revisiting the classroom this past week has reminded us what the profession should and could be. It reminded us of why we chose it, and what good things could happen when the capricious gods were not conspiring against those of us in the classroom.

My UCSB student teaching supervisor always reminded us that the verb "to teach" takes two objects: you always teaching something to someone. I loved literature and I enjoyed teenagers. The job of teaching high school English was right up my street. She never mentioned anything about subordinate clauses filled with distractions and red tape. And luckily, none of them materialized during these last few days when I was leading students through a refresher on writing thesis statements, or Charlie and I were exploring the intricacies of Shakespeare's text.

Teaching is still a pleasure.