#4. MY FIRST DAY ON THE JOB

I entered the teaching world in Indiana.  I was hired to teach Latin.  The day I entered school for an introductory meeting, the Principal handed me a Civics book, Geography book and a World History book.  I did not know that these would be my new friends.  I was young and too foolish or maybe too lucky to become angry.  I can tread water with the best of them.  I looked at the Geography book first as this and Civics were semester classes.  Geography was first.  I looked at the chapters which covered such wonders as clothing, food, shelter- all those things which, of course, make us so different.  I ended up chucking the book for the most part.  We did use it for kind of government, language, industry, resources etc.  The students and I painted a huge map on the wall- about 7feet high by 15 feet long.  We drew out all of the continents and country boundaries as they existed at that time.  A dot and only a dot was fixed where the capital was located for each country.  Then each three week period or so we had tests over capitals and countries for each area.  The other time seasons were taken up with articles which students found in magazines or newspapers about the area or country we covered.  Each student at their moment, went to the map, pointed out their country and capital and gave the report.  Each article was attached to a page and summary written on it. The final exam consisted of a blank map of the earth- students labeled seas, continents, main mountains, rivers, countries and capitals.  Years later I have had students thank me for showing them that Lithuania is not a made up place.  My point is this- when confronted with a task never imagined, it can be turned into something positive. I had no intention of failing.  The course grew, students heard that there was much to learn without fear of drowning.  Civics was another problem.