Future Teacher of America

My freshman year of high school I was placed in an A.V.I.D. class, but it wasn't until many years later when I actually discovered what, and for whom, that class was designed.

I guess I always saw it as shear luck that I got placed into that elective course involuntarily.  I never knew why I was there, but I utilized the time to eat oranges and chat with Amy.  I know we had tutors come in and I know we utilized that hour to get work done.  Frankly, I thought it was genius that I got to do homework while eating my favorite citrus fruit in school.

We went on field trips to colleges and I remember them being boring field trips.  The campuses seemed so big and felt like light years away.  I really only went to get out of school for the day.  I remember walking on those vast campuses missing the "fun" field trips of my youth to places like the Frito Lay Factory and the Wonderbread Factory.

Ho-Hum.

It was in A.V.I.D. that my teacher, Mrs. Puckett once gave me an over-sized t-shirt.  I think I pajama'd in it on occasion.  I remember her smiling warmly as she handed me the t-shirt that read "Future Teacher of America".  I remembered my manners and thanked her, but inside I was wondering what the Hell she was thinking.

I had never considered being a teacher.  I thought it seemed like the absolute worst profession and it seemed incredibly boring (no offense, teachers).  To be around annoying kids and teenagers with all their defiance and idle chatter just seemed awful.

As she handed me the t-shirt, she seemed so certain and told me she knew I would be a teacher someday.

Ohhhhhhh, Mrs. Puckett.  How did you know?

So in my later years just after I graduated with my B.A. I decided to become a high school substitute teacher- which was an AWESOME job.  I mean, sure, I saw a lot of the Grapes of Wrath and found myself re-reading the same chapter along with my classes each day as I bounced around schools within the district, but I also read a whole lot of "In-Touch" magazine and enjoyed watching dance and cheer classes rehearse. 

Seriously- such a cake job.

And I subbed AVID on occasion and finally learned that it was a class designed for students who "had potential" but were the first in their family to go to college and were lower-income.  I guess that sounds about right.  I suppose it best I didn't know what it meant in high school since I would have scoffed at it.

But maybe, just maybe, it made all the difference.

I remember I actually saw Mrs. Puckett at one of the high schools I was subbing at (she had transferred).  I wanted to say hello and tell her I was getting my Master's degree to become a teacher but I was certain she wouldn't remember me, almost a decade later.  I looked in her periphery, but she didn't look my way.

The moment passed, and that's okay because I don't do well with awkward pleadings "remember me!?" as though I was a celebrity.

But here I am, all these years later, working in education and oftentimes working with teachers of A.V.I.D.

I smile as I see the students studying, surrounded by posters and banners from universities, and wondering if any of them are hiding oranges in their backpacks.