"Summer Says Good-Bye, Students Say Hello"

an essay by Rachel Bredow, a lowly junior high teacher

It's that time of year again! The beginning of the end. The end of the freedom that we cling to. Soon, very soon, our "lazy"(yeah right) summer days will be consumed by the rush of students eager to get back to school and stacks of papers to grade.

Already I see those great books I devoured this summer and the family gatherings I enjoyed so much, fading into the hazy summer afternoons. The sound of noisy lunchrooms and banging lockers are getting louder and louder in my ears as the start of school approaches.

Not with dread, do I anticipate the upcoming school year. For just as summer is a much needed reprieve from the school year, so is the start of school a call to normalcy and a place where teachers feel needed and accepted.

It is here we belong and find much of our worthiness and significance in life. However, the school year does provide some challenges for teachers, especially at the beginning of the school year. Getting back to the grind, after a couple months off proves difficult at times. It is before the teacher goes on auto-pilot (about mid-October), when we have things figured out again, and after the initial shock to the system of the teaching regiment, that a place of solace and escape is needed.

A place where we can be ourselves and enjoy the company of other teachers without worrying about the students, or the parents, or the administration. It is only with other teachers, that teachers can fully be understood, or so I've found.

Just as I am sure it is with doctors and other doctors, or policemen with other policemen. There is no need to explain the tick that has developed in your eye due to a particular student in your class to another teacher who has a sudden, unexplainable twitch developing inhis/her neck. That is why eleven other teachers andI deserve to share a fun, relaxing evening in each other's company, in a suite at a Rockies game.

Not to mention that we, as lowly teachers, would never be able to afford this on our own. We, who get paid less than ______, but who would never change jobs because it is not a job, but a way of life. It is at a baseball game that we will not totally despair at the summer gone by and can still cling to the last piece of freedom, America's favorite pastime, a nice cold beer. Oh, and baseball! Call it a farewell to the summer and a hello to the students who trustingly await their education. We won't let you down!