I had several students like Kalbin. These students needed me. They needed a positive role model and, bottomline, they needed someone who cared. And I did. I cared too much. I was there for my students that first year before school, during lunch and after school. On top of all that, I took so much work home with me that my life was my job and my students. Memorial Day weekend was the weekend that made me realize I needed to change my ways. I kept going and going and didn't leave any time for myself and eventually I got bronchitis and threw out my back at 26 years old. Something needed to change.

I came back my second year with a chip on my shoulder. I kept thinking to myself, "I don't want to do that again -- I don't want my life and my health to suffer the way it did last year." Fortunately, I had several of the same "Dangerous Minds" students in my classes to help me put in less energy. There were so many students who made so much progress that first year that by the end of the school year, they were asking me for more math problems just so they could practice. Behavior wasn't an issue -- they genuinely wanted to learn.

Still, when they came back the second year, they were back to square one. You see, they spent an entire summer away from me, away from school and away from positive role models. That's when I came to the realization that as teachers, there is so much working against us that if you care too much, you and your health suffer and ultimately the students don't become any more responsible or knowledgeable; they become enabled to not take personal responsibility for their lives, their work, themselves. Therein lies the debate of extrinsic motivation versus intrinsic motivation. It's a sad but true reality.

Even with this sad reality, there is a wonderful joy in the teaching career: You're shaping future generations. You may have the next president sitting in your classroom. You have students that you get to interact with and inspire every day. On top of that, you have the freedom to teach however you want to teach. You get do decide what you're doing on a daily basis, and if something isn't working, you can change it so it does work. There is a mandated curriculum that each teacher is required to teach (at least in core subject areas such as math, English, history, science, etc.), but no one gets to tell you how to teach that curriculum. It's a wonderful job that I am very excited to be able to craft for many years to come. 

There may be some pessimistic, negative, politic-ridden blogs you will see from me in the future, but the core job of interacting and inspiring my students on a daily basis is truly the art and joy of teaching.