Last One Standing

This morning I was hit with the realization, maybe it was just a feeling, that I am the last teacher of the original English Department 5 that moved into the new building eight years ago still in the building. I was the odd duck, the coach that teaches English, the only male, the least likely at the time to move to the new digs. There were some with more seniority and all the politically correct reasons to be moved instead of me. But I was the one, and it made all the difference.

I knew I could never match those fine ladies and their teaching skills. There was the feeling, good natured, of being a eunuch at times. That was my joke. But the reality was; they welcomed me, and taught me, and helped me, and I became a better teacher. They put up with my sporting absences and hopefully I repaired the copier and toted the books around enough to make up for being gone. I said I could never teach like they did, but I decided I could be average or better in as many other ways of serving them as possible. In spite of that, they did make me a better teacher.

One passed away before her time, three retired for life's reasons. I tried to fill their shoes. Others, good people, moved in. It wasn't, isn't, quite the same.

Next year it looks like I will be teaching some English, but mostly P.E. I will give up Room 81 to a full-time English teacher, and I should. It is right. But I will remember the English building, with the department that was "a hard nut to crack."

And that has made all the difference.