THE GIFT OF TEACHING

For more than 30 years, I have been one of the luckiest people in the world. I have been able to do what I dreamed I would do – teach children.

Being the oldest of 25 grandchildren, I think that God put a teaching gene in my body. During holidays and at family reunions, we would talk about movies, life, school and friends. Since I was the mature one, it was left up to me to teach my brothers and cousins the ways of the world.

Someone once asked how I knew that teaching was going to be my life. I can’t remember when I wasn’t teaching. From reading to my brothers and baby dolls as a child, to working in the nursery at church, babysitting and teaching my friends the latest dances that I had learned from “American Bandstand” – I knew that telling people about new things, singing a new song, showing someone a new dance step – all these things made me feel happy and fulfilled.

Teaching students with learning disabilities about geography, world and United States history and government came about after years of teaching preschool, kindergarten and elementary school. The way that younger children love your creativity, laugh with you and accept you for the way you are is something that no other profession offers.

Since 1985, each day has been exciting but a challenge. Learning disabled students are not any different from the other students at James Madison High School. They just need every modality in order to make sure that they will be able to recognize, comprehend and learn about things such as Ancient Greece, the Renaissance, the Declaration of Independence and the X Generation.

As my career as a public schoolteacher draws to an end, I know that the time that I have spent in the classroom has been full of ups and rarely downs. Each day provides hundreds of memories – the faces of students who laughed at my jokes or my accent, who finished a sentence when I stated, “The belief in one God is … monotheism,” and who returned years later to say that I changed their lives! Me – a smalltown Southern girl who only wanted to be with kids and to teach them at least one thing each year!

I know that God gave me the gift to teach just as He gives others gifts, unique tools to make this world a better place and show the glory of God. And I know I will keep on using my gift in other ways as God shows me the way. I’m a teacher.

— Pam Rawlinson

Courtesy of The Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist