He Said
It is that dreaded time of the year for me — the end of summer. Yes, I am talking about “back to school” time. When our kids graduated, my assumption was that all my spare time getting my kids ready for the new school year would be a thing of the past. I didn’t know marrying a teacher would constitute those same old routines over and over again.
We have shopped for supplies for you. We have gone to all the dress shops in Danville, Greensboro, Charlotte, and even Myrtle Beach looking for the perfect outfits to impress the kids. You have acquired a new calendar to keep up with meetings and other special events to keep you on track. You have pored over paper after paper of introductions for your students. You have shopped for books on how to organize your classrooms. You have shopped for bulletin board materials to ensure that you pass inspection just in case those twins come by from HGTV.
I am going through more excruciating pain getting you ready for school than I remember going through with my own kids.I’m happy that you have a job you truly enjoy. I am glad you love your school, your principal, and all your fellow teachers you will consortwith this year. It’s good to see you enjoying your kids and teaching them to learn. I know how important that is to you. That’s what makes you an exceptional teacher. I would promote the idea of submitting your name as “Teacher of the Year” but I’m afraid if you won, you would want to continue teaching a few more years and to be honest with you, I’m tired of buying more pencils.
She Said
Being married to you is probably more trouble than teaching a room full of thirty kids. At least they go home at night, and with you it is a steady diatribe of not this and not that, and you are tired, or hungry or even worse, bored.
For your information, I loved getting my own kids ready for school all those years. I loved buying back packs, pencils, picking out cool erasers, getting the best deal on notebook paper, and finding just the right pencil sharpener to fit in the school box. I loved leaving notes in my children’s lunchbox to surprise them at lunch. They would run home after school excited about a poem, or a saying, or just an “I love you.”
My daughter and sons are all grown now and have their own children to get ready for school and, yes, you’re right, I sort of miss those days. I do prepare myself for school, and I do enjoy buying supplies for the children who have less than we do. It makes me feel good to supply them with the tools they need to learn and participate the way they should. If I can’t prepare myself for school, how can I expect for my kids to be prepared for school? I miss those days but I get to relive them every year when I am preparing for the new students. This is a vast, exciting world to them. I love the wonder in their eyes, and I love the end of the year when I acknowledge their growth, and how I, as one teacher, hopefully made a little difference in their lives.
It is not like you say, just buying pencils and just doing the same thing over and over each year. It is my life as a teacher, and I would not trade anything for all the memories and happiness these children have brought into my life. I would say the same thing about you but my teacher certificate doesn’t allow me to lie. Ha ha!