This year marks my tenth year of not having to go back to school in the fall. I spent 19 years as a student, plus 33 as a teacher and unless my meager math skills are eroding, that is 52 years of going to school in the fall.

Now all I do is smile when I see those school zone lights flashing and see a school bus causing a backup. No more do I snooze through in-service, make out lesson plans, attend school board meetings, hold parent conferences, grade papers, make out report cards, do bus duty, do lunch duty, do playground duty, keep attendence records, stand watch in the hall during class changes, break up fights, humor the principal, wait in line for the ditto machine, wash the windows in my classroom, clean up science equipment, number the books, repair the books, issue the books, repair desks, steal supplies from the supply room, work in the concession stand, attend PTO meetings, sit in on M-team meetings, and it seems like I left something out. . . . oh yes, teach classes when there is some spare time.

I often see old friends who are still teaching or who have more recently retired and they all say the same thing; "You're are lucky you got out when you did." Does that mean things got worse?

So I sit back on a September morning listening to the school bus go by, reading the paper and sipping coffee. Would I do it again? Well, of course I would. I'm a teacher.
Howard