We started school last Wednesday in our school district. So including today, that makes four days of school complete, 176 to go. This being the first Monday completed on our schedule, I wanted to take a moment and share something with you all. You know how they say that when you are elected President of the United States, you stop aging at a normal rate. For every year in office the body ages anywhere from 2.5 years to 4 years. This is why President Clinton looked 47 when he took office. and eight short years later he looked closer to 62, than the actual age of 55 years. That's why we pay them the big bucks. You gotta pay to play, and all that.
Well, the same is true of teachers, but for shorter periods. Now, I can't back this up with any solid data, but I believe teachers age this way on the first week of school. Let's just say for the sake of argument, that teachers age in "Dog Years" during the first week of class each year. With the ratio of dog years to human years being 7 to 1, that makes the first week of school(5 days), equal to 35 days, or seven weeks of teaching. If we add that together over a forty year teaching career, we come to an additional...5.4 years of aging! This would explain why some of our teachers look at bit more "frazzled", let's say, than we think they should by retirement age.
I'm not saying that teaching is like working in the coal mines, or even as stressful as being POTUS, but the first few days back are definitely a transition to a new way of walking, and bending, and stooping...you get the picture. So let's take a few minutes today to remember the unsung hero of the classroom, the Break Even Teacher, and give them a round of applause. Or maybe a massage, or soak their feet, or maybe a free week at the spa!
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