The school secretary took care of me until I could pull myself together. She was gentle and comforting, at the same time she was probably trying to figure out what to do with my class. She didn't have to worry because the teaching assistant and teacher next door took over my classes, wrote lesson plans for a week and took care of my students during my sudden absence. My principal told me to take as much time as I needed, that everything would be fine at school. When I got back, everything was fine. The kids had been through discussions about loss and grieving. They knew what I had been through and were calm and supportive. They really had been taken care of because that is what we do for a living.

I was reminded of my experience because last week one of the teachers at our school lost her husband. And just as they did for me, everyone in school stepped in and took care of things. They took care of the kids, the lesson plans, the problems. They understood the pain and grief involved and they were there doing what needed doing. It is often said that people teach because they love kids. I enjoy the kids, of course, but I think I like the adults who work in schools as much as the students I teach. There is just something full and rich and safe about those people. They are smart and perceptive and I just feel proud that I get to be one of them.

You hear a lot of talk about pride and honor when you are in the military. But I don't hear that about people who work in schools. That's too bad, because people who work in schools, teachers and staff, have pride in what they do. They are brave, honorable people who walk in the door every day and take care of the problems much of society wishes did not exist. They take care of the kids with disabilities, the kids with behavior problems, the kids with health problems or addiction problems, whatever. People who work in schools walk in that door every day, every year and take care of business. They take care of the kids and they take care of each other. I know it sounds kind of sugar and spice, but I swear, I have worked in a bunch of different kinds of places and none of them have that school feeling.

I love going to work, even when I am tired and my brain is fried to a crispy critter. I like going to work when the paper is stacked up on my desk and my lesson plans are not done. I put that key in my door and turn on the lights and no matter what shape I'm in on that particular day, my engine starts running and I get things pulled together. I teach my classes, eat my lunch, trade jokes with the secretaries and counselors, find my principal and check in, then I just kind of wander around looking at the school, looking at the other teachers. I wave or thumb my nose or share some food. It's fun. Working in a school is the toughest job I know of, but man there is just something about it that is good and safe and fun.

Day after day, kid problem after kid problem, we teach our classes, do our job and live our lives. When the day comes that tragedy strikes, as it always does in life, there is no better place to be. Death, divorce, illness, it does not matter. When life strikes and you are in trouble or in pain, standing in the middle of a school is the best place in the world.

I don't know what is going to happen tomorrow, but I am really happy that I am a teacher and I get to go to work.

Published February 1, 2007