Grand Academy,lower east side Manhattan, is where I began my journey in public education. I had been a substitute teacher that year in Junior High School #21. When students' behavior was so bad - like having committed a crime - that they were expelled from JHS#21, then were enrolled in Grand Academy. It was on the second floor of a community center close to the "real" school. My job was to finish the year there as a a permanent sub, teaching World History to 7th, 8th, and 9th graders. I was taking the place of a young handsome man with a pony tail. Students enjoyed his class. I, with minimal class room management skill, and very little social appeal, had my hands full. The idea was to capture their attention and hold their interest for the duration of the class, and have that attention somehow focused on World History.

With a small grant ffom a colleague's foundation, I created and implemented a set of lesson plans for the six months which included a trip to the United Nations and the nearby neighborhood, Loisaida, for a tour by the leaders. The students were all of Puerto Rican descent. Most of them lived within this human development project neighborhood). The students experienced the six major Ur cultures by a day with food, tradional dress, music, dance, ambience, and explanation of the origin of each perspective. I picked small sections of the text for each new encounter, introducting them to the geography's role in creating the culture. This all caught their attention enough to learn some of the terms and people they needed to know.

When report cards came outmany didn't get "A"s, as they were accustomed to getting from the young man in the pony tail. There was an angy onslaught on parents night, complete with sticks and threats on my very being. Oddly enough, my responses were satisfactory as parents heard that I cared about their children succeeding, how well they were progressing, and that I, in fact, was enjoying their being in my classes. I actually was surprised that a stance of unconditional positive regard worked. My inclination otherwise would be to walk away angry at the outrage of it all.

The rest of the twenty years in public education was not much different. That was the only time I got to teach World History. Taught children with disabilities for awhile, was a Guidance Counselor for most of the years, and then did consultation with students with disabilities and their teachers. There is a library full of learnings in that twenty years, the greatest of which, I did not master - that being one who is en-joying having a job in an institutional setting.


And you? Do you en-joy your work?