Brent Taylor never thought of himself as a teacher.
The 37-year-old Lorain man made a career as a computer engineer for a Westlake firm. Then, about 10 years ago, he started having kids. He watched the joy in their eyes as they learned something new and a light bulb went off in his head.
“I just didn’t want to work for years and have that unsatisfied feeling of working more for my job than my family,” he said.
Friday morning, Taylor was talking about his impending job switch in a colorfully decorated classroom at Elyria Schools Kindergarten Village. On a large sheet of paper clipped to an easel, students were signing in under a message that said, “Dear friends, Today is Friday, Dec. 3, 2010. Today we say goodbye to Mr. Taylor.”
After five weeks of hands-on work in Barb Anderson’s classroom, Taylor’s time in the classroom as a student teacher is coming to an end. But his goal of one day becoming a teacher is in full swing.
“I’m switching because I don’t want to be stuck behind a desk working in engineering for the rest of my life,” he said. “I wanted to become a teacher because I want to share what I have learned in my life with kids. I want to be a positive role model in their lives.”
The father of three is a senior at Baldwin-Wallace College and hopes to return to the classroom as a teacher in roughly a year. But he is quick to point out he never dreamed of being a teacher. Even when he took an aptitude test at Lorain County Community College and teaching popped up as a good career choice, Taylor said he still wondered if it was for him.
Then, one day he was working at his home. Two inquisitive neighborhood boys came over and wanted to know what he was doing. For hours, they stood there soaking up everything he had to say, hanging on his every word. Taylor said, unbeknownst to him, his wife was watching.
When the kids left, Taylor said, his wife turned to him and said, “Why not give teaching a try?”
The trend of late-in-life teachers or those who switch to teaching as second careers seems to be on the rise.
While some can assume it’s due to lingering uncertainty about the economy that has professionals looking for a better sense of job security, those in the education field see people turning to the classroom because they are searching for fulfillment in their lives.
“Every time I interview a candidate, I always ask them why they are looking to become a teacher,” said Gary Taylor, director of human resources for Elyria Schools. “Most of them say, ‘I’m looking for something more fulfilling to do’. It is not job security. You don’t become a teacher for the money. They want to make more of an impact.”
The profile of who is becoming a teacher is changing, but the why remains the same. The National Center for Education Information, which tracks individuals starting teaching careers through alternative teacher certification programs, found 62 percent of those who take an alternate route toward teaching do so because of a strong desire to work with young people. Valuing education in society and having an interest in the subject matter they wish to teach are also reasons why adults pursue teaching. The survey taken in 2005 said the average age of teachers in alternative teaching programs at that time was 30. At Baldwin-Wallace College, where a special licensure-only program was developed in the Education Department many years ago to give students varying avenues to teacher certification, there are roughly 50 students enrolled ranging in age from 25 to 60, said Karen Kay, chairwoman of the Division of Education.
“What we have found is what adult students know from their life experiences is helpful and they learn quickly,” she said. “When you have raised children or have children in school, you have a good context for teaching. You know what you are electing to do.” Kay said a number of older students admit to succumbing to family pressures to be lawyers, bankers or engineers when all along they dreamed of being teachers. Those are the ones who have the most success in the program because they already have the passion for teaching.
However, it can’t be discounted that for the most part, teaching does have the built-in perk of tenure. Taylor said young teachers just have to weather the early storms of being at the bottom of seniority lists that put them in the prime position to be laid off.
“Then, with seniority and a continuing contract, unless there is a major financial meltdown, they are in pretty good shape,” he said.
In Elyria, where there are 460 teachers in the classroom, the average age of teachers is 37 with 15 years of experience, Taylor said. Some are teachers who came to the district after working in other industries.
There are examples all over the district to pull from. At Elyria High School, Dena Waldock is the business teacher and comes to the district after 20 years in the financial market as a broker.
Charles Rudd, a second-grade teacher at Crestwood Elementary, came to the district five years ago after almost two decades in business. His first career was technology-based, and Rudd has used those skills to help fellow teachers incorporate Smart Boards in the classrooms. He even wrote an accompanying Smart Board computer program for a reading program called Wilson Fundations.
If it takes a teacher to know a teacher, Anderson, who is retiring this year after 30 years of teaching said she saw one in Taylor the moment he walked into her classroom. He was early that first day and very well prepared. He has been that way every day since.
“I always get a little concerned if (student teachers) don’t connect with kids,” she said. “I have been totally blown away by the quality we have here. He comes in early, stays late and puts his all into his lessons.”
Nearby, Taylor stood near a 4-foot handmade book that was one of those lessons. It started out as a daily lesson on reading and writing based on the popular children’s book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.”
Taylor wanted the kids to write their own version of the book, “The Very Hungry Orange Room.” (The kindergarten classrooms at Kindergarten Village are separated by color instead of room number.) He gave each student a piece of paper that would become part of their caterpillar and had each write about their favorite fruit.
But the book kept growing and growing as Taylor struggled to find a fun way to display it for his pint-sized audience. “Imagine being the size of a five- or six-year-old and writing on something this size with this in your hand,” Taylor said with a pencil the size of a small baseball bat in his hand. “I think I just wanted the children to know anyone can be a writer, and when you write you have to have big ideas.”
Anderson said the students have loved to take their turn at the big book, but more impressive to her is Taylor’s motivation behind the book.
“This was not a culminating project or anything,” she said. “You would think he was building up to this over the past five weeks, but it’s just something he did to enhance his lesson. He just thinks that big naturally.”
Gary Taylor said late-in-life teachers bring a different kind of enthusiasm to the classroom that can only be learned through life experience.
“It’s sort of a different perspective and maturity,” he said.
Source: http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2010/
