School Drop Out 

I’m almost embarrassed to say it but I’m a school teacher. Nothing embarrassing about that you say..  But for me it is just a little ironic that i spend my days telling kiddies how important it is to study, when I totally ballsed up my own skooln. 

And here’s the thing, I suffer serious imposter syndrome, “i shouldn’t be here”, “I’m a fraud”, “the kiddies will see through me”… etc you get the idea. 

It was a random road to get to this point. I left school for mechanical apprenticeship, did the workshop gig for a while then a life-changing motorcycle accident got me evaluating things and i tried outdoor rec for a bit (totally loved it but hard to find $$ to support a lifestyle). 

My next thought process was a National Parks and Widlife career so I enrolled in an Environmental Science degree at university. I’m not sure what prompted this visit but I met with the campus counselor who, after hearing my story said “ you should be a school teacher”. I was horrified at this advice, after all I was a school drop out who had never managed to break the social code of the institution and had a deep-seeded hatred for the confines of conformity. 

Nevertheless, a two year degree carrot dangled due to my eligibility for a scheme to get trade-qualified teachers into schools. I switched courses, promising myself that I would never work in the dreaded school system but was merely adding a degree to my resume.

I returned from my first practicum vowing never to work with children again, but determined to finish what I had started and complete my degree. (That and to prove those teacher predictions wrong that I was a difficult, head strong individual who clearly would not amount to much). 

18 years later I find myself as a Leader of Learning (Head Teacher) in a High School and I stated to my class today, “I’m a school dropout.” They looked at me with disbelief, “really?” they asked. Yup! And the thing is I value education, I value lifelong learning, but you gotta be ready to absorb it and take it in.  

So this is me – I still think the school system sucks, but I hope that the kiddies in my classes learn a thing or two. At the very least they will know that water boils at 68 degrees Celsius on the top of Mount Everest. (Really hoping for a trivia question on this one day!).