First Teaching Job

Waking up this morning to these cold, icy weather conditions, reminds of my first day on the job at Miami Elementary School in Lafayette, Indiana. I had just graduated from Purdue University at the beginning of January, 1967 and had signed a contract to take a position teaching a self-contained fifth grade. For those of you not familiar with educational jargon, I was going to be responsible for all subjects----not just my favorite ones, but all of them! I had to cover grammar, social studies, spelling, handwriting, reading, science, math, and art. Fortunately there were books and Teacher's Manuals for all subjects except art. The only two subjects that I was not responsible for were PE and music.

I was lucky enough to have signed my contract, toured the school, and visited the classroom before the teacher left on maternity leave. Her name was Sheila and her students loved her. She seemed easygoing and congenial. She willingly left me her lesson plans, her teaching manuals, and her organizational charts. She made it all seem so easy. She was definitely what would be referred to today as a”master teacher.”

Well, feeling that I had some big shoes to fill, I prepped for my first day solo in the classroom. I had lesson plans to write, textbooks to read, bulletin boards to prepare, and outfits to plan. As a newly wed, my husband was just getting his first dose of what it was going to be like living with a teacher. I was anxious to say the least. He realized my anxiety when I would sit up in bed in the middle of the night reciting lesson plans in my sleep.

On the morning of the first day, I was up early. Since we were living in the married student courts on Purdue's campus, our car had to sit outside. It was January in Indiana, so my husband, a Purdue student himself, got up and started the car, scraped the windows, and hauled all my classroom paraphernalia to the car. I wanted to be at the school early.

I drove through campus, across the Wabash River, and up the hill in Lafayette to Miami Elementary. When I got to the school, the parking lot was empty. I thought that I was the first one to arrive. I gathered my ”instructional materials” to enter the building when the janitor appears at the door He informs me that the school is closed due to “inclement weather.” I asked him if I could use the phone to call my husband.

How did I miss the “inclement weather” conditions? How did I get up the hill? How did I not see everything covered in ice? The minute I got my husband on the phone I was a basket case. Now I was scared. His reply, which I have learned after 47 years of marriage is as always, ”what do you expect me to do about it?”

Fortunately, I got back home safely, I lived to teach another “first” day, and I learned to never underestimate the power of adrenalin.