Yes, I realize that someone with my education makes twice as much as I do outside of teaching. And I always think it’s funny when consultants come to present to teachers and say things like, “I was a teacher, but I had the opportunity to work for X-Company to help teachers like you.” I giggle at this because of course they left teaching to make more money and have an easier job. We who sit patiently during our inservices are not stupid.

But in their jobs, they will not experience what I experienced yesterday. One of the most difficult kids at school (for teachers), because he must talk constantly and has a very hard time sitting still for any length of time (making school a torturous environment for him), actually made my week.

You know the kind of kid who is well-liked by his peers, athletic, hilarious, always irreverent and often inappropriate but unpretentious, the kind of kid for whom school is simply not important. That’s him. So he is making the entire class laugh as he is working on his project. And he keeps teasing me relentlessly because earlier I had laughed at the ridiculously obscene and Holocaust-like news story that China is selling capsules full of ground dead babies and fetuses to South Korea because the flesh of babies is believed to increase sexual stamina. I laughed because if I didn’t laugh at the evilness of this, I would have cried. Forgive me!

At one point I mention to this student, who is a huge basketball fan, that Shaquille O’Neal recently earned his Master’s in Education and is now working toward his doctorate. Incredulous, my student bet me five minutes of “not talking” as he Googled the truth of my statement. So, our class did enjoy five minutes of eery silence from him. Funnily enough, he kept track of his time and informed me when it was up.

The best part of yesterday came at the bell, not because my day was over, but because as this distracted, talkative, dare I say, obnoxious student raced out the door (no running in the halls, please), he yelled, “I love you, Mrs. Demmert!”

Guess you’re not going to get that in any other job unless someone is actually hitting on you!

It’s truly not about the money.