There will always be something or someone who will show you the path to take.
During the first weeks of grade IX we took a battery of career preference, personality and aptitude tests to reveal what path we were to take. My results indicated “…strong leaning toward journalism…”
What nonsense! I always wanted to be a test pilot – but required glasses, so that was out. I then thought I could be an aeronautical engineer – but Algebra, Trigonometry and Physics were just ‘Greek to me!’
Then, on the last day of my second year in grade XIII, came the someone who would show me the path to take. Father Gorman, my Basilian English teacher since grade IX, asked, “Well? Are you thinking of joining us?” A laugh was my answer.
“So, what are you going to do?” I told him I didn’t have a clue.
“You’d be a good teacher.”
“No way! Besides, I want to get to work right away, not spend three or four years in some university.”
That’s when he told me of a 45-day summer course that would qualify me to teach for one year. I took it. That September, 19-year-old ‘teacher’ me was standing in front of a class of 40 grade six and seven pupils. It was one of my many very satisfying years of teaching.
Did I always follow the dictates of the prescribed curriculum book? No. instead, I looked for the students needing a guide. I remember finding them in all the wide variety of classes I taught: pre-primary special education; kindergarten through grade eight; developmentally handicapped; adult re-training; grade IX Canadian Geography for basic, general and advanced classes.
Then, for five years, I became an Audio-Visual Aids consultant for a Toronto school board. I was able to share my acquired skills in technology, photography and wide experience in teaching with fellow teachers.
Finally, as a supply teacher in Eastern Ontario for several years, I hope I was a fresh face in classes whose teacher was away with a medical condition, or nervous breakdown, or maternity leave, or attending the funeral of a loved one.
That priest was the someone who showed me the path to take. If you are a student returning to school this week, I hope a teacher who will be your pathfinder finds you. If you are a teacher returning to school this week, keep your eyes open for the students who have not yet seen the light, the ones who have not yet discovered their path.
