Role "models"

I have been a teacher or teacher-in-training for about seven or eight years. In that time, I have met a lot of teachers. Eventually, you start to develop a teacher-catalogue of sorts in your mind. This helps you rapidly identify your colleagues. You always have the "I'd rather be..." person who clearly has their mind in another place entirely. They leave at 3:02 on the dot. You have the "can I be someone's mother?" who clearly finds meaning in being constantly needed. You also have the "old school is the only school" member of the staff who still leaves for a smoke break mid-morning. But in large part, the teachers are good people who are good for students in some way...

So, into the second semester in my new digs, I have identified most everyone's character. Check, check. There are all the traditional roles, you would expect, some funny, some endearing, and some pretty annoying. But they allow school to function as it always does. There is, however, a new archetype I have never had the, well... excruciating horror, of seeing in action before.

The comment of, "the older I get, the younger I want to appear" is something this late-twenties teacher actually said to the newspaper in our metro area when they interviewed her for the "style" section.(She was featured because of her stylish attire at school, a.k.a. Louis Vitton bags, Seven jeans, etc.). Her genre, I have decided, is "teaching high school in order to still BE in high school".

At lunch, she commands the attention of all of the other teachers around her and proceeds to spend the entire lunch period gossiping about this student and that family. And wouldn't you know it, she is the advisor for cheerleading, too! One of my students was just lamenting to me that she wished she had been a captain for the cheer squad because then Mrs. High School would have given her a Coach wristlet purse as a gift, too. What?

So at this point, you are probably thinking... "None of that is so bad, is Kloumr just jealous?" No, and it gets worse. Recently, she decided it would great to put together a "staff cheer squad" to perform at the winter sports pep fest. Good idea- I am all for doing funny things to keep kids interested. Unfortunately, though, for her it was serious. She did jumps, she tumbled, she lived high school for a few minutes during the assembly. That same day I made the poor decision of joining a group of the teachers for lunch. She came in gushing, "Oh God, I was having so much fun, I didn't want it to end." She continued blathering throughout lunch with, "that was soooo great" and "none of my girls have ever seen me do a jump before, they were super impressed" and "that is the highlight of my year so far, for sure".

I could go on, but it is probably unnecessary. I am currently trying to embody the quote that was scrawled on the bulletin board of my freshman geography lecture hall in college, "The opposite of love is not hate. It is indifference." This is hard, and I am currently losing the battle. I think it is because Mrs. High School's ethos is so opposite of mine, I struggle with her as a high school teacher. Here's why: we are role models for our students, no matter who we are. (Now, I am not claiming that I am a super duper role model all the time. I am not particularly impressive when I do things like crash into and fall over the recycling bin mid-sentence, while teaching.) But I do believe in, and try to, illustrate to the students personal responsibility, humility, and concern for others.

Do we really need teachers who encourage students to continue thinking that what goes on in high school is the be all end all of life, that nothing will ever be so great, that popularity and brand names are most important and vital to your position in life? I vote no.