Once a Teacher, Always a Teacher

Written by Mike Adams

My second career in teaching is based on a long family history of service in education that includes both grandfathers. Mom's dad, as an impoverished young man in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), started as a "pupil-teacher" in 1930. He rose to principal by 1954 and retired in 1970 with forty years of service.

I believe despite his faults; he instilled in my mother a deep love of learning. She completed her O-Level equivalent, which is a post-high school credential of education awarded by Cambridge University before T&T's independence from the U.K, and among other things, she taught Spanish on the island before meeting my father. A fond memory of mine is that she came to my class in my second-grade year and taught and helped all the students and teachers make a giant tissue paper flower for Mother's Day. Other robust memories include my parents visiting Tokyo and my mother teaching my children even in her advanced age.

Friends, family, and readers of this blog may know that my mother went through a deep depression. However, as I believe it is often the case - depression ends, and I am confident that having a job and commitment to the community is among the best interventions available. 

I credit the articulation of this theory to my mentor and pastor, Ken Turner. Upon her return to our family in 1984, eligible from her O-Levels, with the help of our dearest family friend Florencia  Lewis  (who by the way also helped me obtain my teaching prospects), received a position as Teaching Assistant in the Syracuse City School District. To those of you who know my mom, it is no surprise that she never referred to herself as an assistant, and as I understand it, most of her head teachers treated her as a co-teacher. 

She primarily supported severely physically disabled children and also those on the spectrum in integrated classrooms. I think it is fair to say that mom was an angel for the family of one boy we recall. However, she also supported all students in art and creativity. Furthermore, she moonlighted as an instructor of vegetarian cooking at Onondaga Community College. I recall how happy that job made her.

Among her students were US Circuit Judge Rosemary Pooler and her daughter, (for those outside of the United States, a Circuit judge is the level directly below the Supreme Court). Mom enjoyed having the budget to buy the ingredients for the class meals freely at Wegmans. School children and adult cooking students were welcome to our home from time to time, and any visitor in that era would have a delicious meal at least. 

In closing, I will let mom speak for herself. These are her words, circa 2000.

"I love to share my feelings with others. I believe that one of the greatest gifts that we can give to our students is the ability to see, to hear, and to reach others; to see the beauty in human communication. Unless we can teach our students- the next generation to be human beings who can share and care for others, we will, unfortunately, be bringing up robots! 

I love to create. Because of my enthusiasm and creativity, I can give my students the sense of their creativity, necessary for them, to perhaps reach their dreams and goals, or at least provide them with some self-confidence and self-esteem to move on...hope if you will, perhaps sometimes at a seemingly dead-end street."