Unicorn

 

A few years ago, I was working one of my side hustles at Rhode Island Comic Con. While deep in the dark corners of Amica Mutual Pavillion (AMP), I started a conversation with an AMP security guard. We started talking about teaching and during the conversation in which he explained that he was formerly an Assistant Principal, who just recently went back to the classroom...he called me a name.

He called me a unicorn.

The definition that everyone knows of a unicorn is, 'a mythical animal typically represented as a horse with a single straight horn projecting from its forehead.' What he was referring to was the secondary definition, 'something that is highly desirable but difficult to find or obtain.'

When I got into teaching, because I had no experience in any sort of teacher preparation course, I needed to get an M.A.T. (Master of Arts in Teaching) degree. Since then, I have attained another degree, M.Ed. in TESOL (Teaching English to Students of Other Languages) and gotten dyslexia certification. Add my sort foray into Special Education, with the passing of the Special Education PRAXIS exam. I have a few pieces of paper that seem to say that I know what I am doing.

Additionally, I am a male in a female dominated field (especially in the Elementary realm of teaching).

I guess I am a unicorn.

That said, I could probably go almost anywhere I want. But I don't. Mary E. Fogarty is where I want to be.

Is it for the broken down 100+ year building we currently inhabit? Is it for the lack of supplies? Broken electronics? Seemingly misguided district mandates? 

No. Those are all the reasons to leave.

It's for the students (and the relationships), for the families that you get numerous students from, it's for the staff. An unbelievable staff of smart, hard-working, caring, loving educators that are all looking out for our students...but also each other.

Room 301 has been unoccupied for large chunks of the year. The now ten students in the class are not getting everything that everyone else in the school has been getting.

But...the moment that a glimmer of light showed up in that room (in the form of a substitute that cared - and wanted to learn), Peter and myself jumped in to help get her all the supplies and knowledge that she needed (without overwhelming her). Things do not happen that way everwhere. There are many teachers that want to hold onto everything they have (planning time, lunch, etc.)

I heard a quote years ago, while in business. I'll paraphrase. 'Leaders don't raise themselves up, they raise up everyone else around them. We are collectively only as good as our weakest link.'

The reason this unicorn doesn't leave and go somewhere else... This is where I feel as though I can make a difference, and also where we collectively try to build up our weakest link(s).


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