WHAT? I BECOME A TEACHER?
In the mid 1990s, I was working for a hardware company in South Gate, California. The hours were long for an assistant manager. During these times, I was also attending Pasadena City College. I had decided to take an occupational curriculum. The Microcomputer Applications program would involve taking every computer class that the college had to offer. I would receive a Certificate of Completion in Mircrocomputer Applications when it was over. I had completed four class and was taking my fifth. So far, so good.
I had one instructor who was very good at teaching. She knew how to motivate you, how to make you study harder, how to make the best of the mistakes you make, and how to get the most out of you. She taught the Computerized Accounting class, and I was glad I had her as an instructor. If I was a teacher, this is the way I would want to teach my students. I often went to her for advice on life in general, the computer courses I was taking or going to take, and the retail business itself. She noticed that I was alittle unhappy at my current employment. As the class ended one day at Pasadena City College, my instructor asked if we could talk alittle. I told her no problem.
"What do you want to do with your life, Louis?"
"Well, I am tried of working at the retail level - nights, weekends, holidays, long hours. I would like to find something different - it's about time for a change."
Ms. Patricia Lynn - my instructor, my mentor, my hero - asked,
"Why don't you become an instructor?"
"What, me become an instructor? Thats sound crazy. I do not know anything about teaching."
"You have the voice. You have the patience. You have all your experience behind you."
"But me, an instructor?"
"What do you do for a living, Louis?"
"I work in the retail business as an assistant manager. But you know that already. Why?"
"What do you do when you hire a new employee to work in your store?"
"I give the employee an orientation. Then if I do not do it myself, I assign him or her to another employee for trainin . . . . . . . . . "
I stopped in my tracks. She was smiling. I slowly took my foot out of my mouth.
"I train the new employee." I shook my head while not trying to look at her. "I have been teaching for the past ten years."
She was nodding her head yes.
Thus began my career as an instructor.