Me and Mr. Feeny
Growing up through the ‘90s of course meant watching TV (for you young-ins this means real TV… not cable or Netflix with all the choices and conveniences) and that meant being able to experience one of the greatest things ever to hit the airwaves – “Boy Meets World”!
You had to love the crazy antics of Cory and Shawn. And Cory’s older brother Eric was always good for a strangely odd laugh. But a main story-line of the show was the lifelong relationship between two of the main characters – Corey and Mr. Feeny (oh and I think there was a Topanga??).
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
By the time the show was hitting it’s stride, I had put away the “cool” answers to this question, and had settled in on being a teacher. So I watched Mr. Feeny with keen interest.
A year or so back, I remember half jokingly posting on Facebook that when I grew up, I wanted to be a teacher just like Feeny. While I’m not there yet (and certainly hope I don’t follow my students through middle and high school), I had a stunning realization this week. As we were winding down our Getting to Know each other conversations and activities, I took time out to let my current 3rd graders ask me questions. One hit me with, “Why did you decide to become a teacher?” I told them how when I was a kid I always answered with policeman, soldier, secret agent etc. but always heard “teacher” in the back of my head. I also explained that by the time I was in high school, I knew I had been called into this profession and felt I could be great in it… not great for me but great for them.
The conversation twisted and turned (as it will with newly minted 3rd graders) and they finally asked two more wonderful questions. “Why hadn’t we done any subject stuff?” and “Why had we done all that other stuff (ie. motivational, class/school cultural, relational activities)?” Both questions led us to a place I’d never fully been before. I was sitting in front of my 14th class of students about to do something I had never done… be totally committed to them!
“They Deserved It!”
I told them that what we had done was far more important than anything else we’d do with “subject stuff”. I told them that I believed in every one of them and knew they would do great things. I told them that homework would be amazingly important to and for them instead of being worksheets that were only important to whoever bought the books they came from. I told them they deserved and should expect me to be a great teacher! Some of this I’d said before to other classes, but not with this much passion and certainly not with this much belief.
As this went on, there was an energetic buzz in the room, in the students and in myself. This was a different feeling. This new year had now been set on a new, inspiring trajectory. A proclamation had been made! In the back of my head, for the first time as a professional educator I felt like I might just have begun becoming Mr. Feeny.