When you have a career field that is in short supply of personnel, sometimes you have to sell it. Well as a full time Biomed and a adjunct Instructor for the same I have to double sell it. That’s the impossible I took on last week. I was asked to present to an 8th grade class. Over 4 hours I had 5 sessions of anywhere from 15-20 students come through and sit, I say that loosely, through my 25 minute spiel. I have always looked at teachers as miracle workers at the elementary and middle school level and this time was no exception. In the 4 hours I was exposed to chaos, that is middle school, I felt like I could use a stiff drink to wash down a Xanax.

Now I know teachers sometimes do not have options of where they teach and what grade they teach but the few teachers I have known over the years, that intentionally chose to teach these ages are either nuts or incredibly gifted. I lean to the latter, in my opinion. How someone can day in and out, have their patience tried, their self esteem questioned, and question all their life decisions. Yet they do not. They love what they do and the age they teach to. Again it takes a special person to be able to break through a barrier of mixed up hormones, boundary pushing, young people. Themselves trying to begin to find their way from being children to young adults. How these teachers resist the urge to not completely snap mentally or physically if you know what I mean.

I looked at the teacher whose class I had infiltrated for a morning and commend him for doing the impossible. He, like so many others around the world, make the impossible possible. They have the patience to work, mold, and develop our sons and daughters into the leaders of tomorrow. It amazes me how one person can herd a room of squirrels and teach turn them into productive people.