If the purpose of life is to bring glory to God, you can do so by teaching children. The Lord loves them. Teachers don’t just teach. They mentor and guide and bring hope and unfortunately, in our society, they have to do much of the parenting.

Perhaps teaching should not be the only venue for pursuing your purpose, but I don’t think it is bad for it to be the main way you serve God and this world.

Balance is most definitely important in life- without it we would all become burnt out and bitter. There is, however, something to be said for devotion as well.

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Talking about private lives, I was single when I became Head of School in this small town in India. I used to get to school at 5:30, attend cricket practice with the school XI, give extra classes in English for the examination class, attend a regular schoolday till 4, then sit, write, reflect, meet with teachers and parents, grade papers and get my first meal of the day. That took me till 8.

I threw in Saturdays too and half-days on Sundays. I was working over 80 hours a week.

Loving it. But in hindsight, I could have had a more balanced work-life by

1. Delegating better (eventually I started doing some of that)
2. Not Boiling the Ocean: letting go of tests and homework grading when it was very good, instead of investing many more hours trying to make them great.
3. Called my family and friends more often.
4. Shut off my e-mail during school hours (making me more efficient doing one thing at a time)
5. I would think of some way to balance being accessible to parents and losing all my potential spare time to them, without compromising the needs of my students. Ending conversations without the small talk (sacriliege in a small town!) could have been one!

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As a single guy in a small town, I can only imagine how difficult it is for you.

As far as seeing students out and about (when I eventually start teaching), I can only speculate but I don’t think I will have a problem with it. In the military the base is a small town and you constantly see guys that work for you and their families and you just learn to live with it. I read in another blog (forget whose), that most of the time the middle and high schoolers try to avoid you as much as you try to avoid them!

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As a single, it’s hard. I give up WAY too much of my personal time to school, simply because I have it to give. I want to help out my colleagues, but I also need to do a much better job of simply saying, “No”. A colleague, another single, asked me what I was doing one particular Friday night. This was during the school year, in May, I believe. Anyway, I told him I was helping to chaperone the Middle School dance. He looked at me and remarked, “You should be going home and going OUT, like, on date.” He had a very good point, and I reflect on that one particular conversation from time to time. In fact, I will most likely go back to that conversation the next time I am asked to chaperone a school dance!

BTW: I feel you re: small town living. I resided in Augusta, GA for three years, and would see students and/or their parents almost wherever I went: the grocery store, a restaurant, Old Navy, and at church. There were times when I would intentionally drive to the other side of town to shop for groceries in order to *avoid* seeing families! I am in a much better situation now, professionally yes, but most *certainly* personally and socially. There’s more to do and in which to be involved, and I am not always running into people from school.

Anyway, this is a good post, Joel, and a worthwhile conversation to have. I hope more teachers will join in.

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I disagree. Helping to instill within young people certain virtues is as high and noble a purpose as any missionary or preacher. I may email you other various thoughts I have on the subject. But I do understand what you’re coming from.

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