Summers

I don’t know how many times in my teaching career I heard people say, “Boy, I’d like a job where you only have to work nine months out of the year!” I would always respond, “Yeah, I’d like one like that, too!” They would always say, “You have one! You’re a teacher aren’t you?” My only response would be, “Let me know if you find a teacher who only works nine months out of the year!”

The truth is teachers put in countless hours in the summer planning and preparing lessons for the year. All teachers are required to continue to take classes to remain licensed. Many curriculum writing projects take place over the summer.

Take the teachers out of vacation bible schools, summer camps, summer recreation programs, swimming lessons, and summer group trips and you wouldn’t have anyone to do it. I once counted in our church in Mt. Pleasant that 8 out of the 11 Sunday school teachers were educators during the week.

Not only do teachers go to summer school for their ongoing education but they often teach summer school themselves. I taught summer school in the Mt. Pleasant district for several years. I started out as a teacher’s assistant the first year and then had my own classroom for a few years after that. Summer school was held in a building near the high school called The Annex. It was really the building that was a pool hall when I was in high school. It now houses a dentist and some other offices.

Maynard Bittle started a summer science program for elementary students. It involved each grade, first through fifth, in summer school having a day of outdoor science education each week. It was revolutionary during its time and highly effective.

When Maynard left the position I became the summer science director. It required me having a school bus driver’s permit. I had to plan a morning’s activities in the field for each group. Summer school was six weeks long so each group got six days.

We did all kinds of cool things! I loved being out of doors and was inspired by the response of the kids. Many had never been on similar adventures. We went geode hunting in Muddy Creek south of New London. We had great success and everyone always came home with a geode. Once we found some Indian artifacts at the site. I imagine if you went back there today you would fine some.

We went fishing at Gibson Park. You have to be sorta nuts and a glutton for punishment to take a group of 20 2nd graders fishing. Tangled lines, icky worms, and hooked earlobes are all over the place.

We went fossil hunting in a local quarry and in the creek where the bugs walk on water. After a day of wading in the water up to their knees and carry large muddy rocks to the bus we looked pretty bad when we pulled into the school at the end of the morning.

We did the tree identification walk on Iowa Wesleyan campus. An astute college president had overseen the planting of over a hundred different varieties of trees on campus. We all learned about the characteristics of each tree and its uses.

These and other adventures occupied our summers for several years. Eventually, I went on to others things that occupied my summers but in my 18 years as a teacher I never had more than a week or two off.