The Unbearable Lightness of Teaching

A teacher preserves the past, reveals the present and creates the future.

As some of you know, aside from being a game designer, gamer, parent, and cat collector – I’ve been a teacher for 18 years. Eighteen.

Now, if you went back in time to meet my younger self – the long-haired weird kid with Soundwave, Buzzsaw, a dice bag, and a AD&D Monster Manual in his backpack, giving nearly every teacher a migraine and constantly getting in trouble, you’d find it really difficult to believe that he’d one day grow up to be that which he despised so much. As a matter of fact, I’d have a hard time believing it. But yet here I am.

Okay – being a teacher isn’t the most respected profession in the world. We don’t dress too well, and we bring our leftovers to school for lunch, and we work late into the night grading papers and avoiding a social life. Yet somehow I really love my work.

Why? Here are just some of the few reasons:

• Kids are really, really funny
• The act of teaching itself is an incredible high
• My job is never, ever boring. There is something new every single day
• The feeling I get when a kid chooses me as the one person they will open up with and let down their guard
• The bond I have formed with my students after spending years with them during school. I’ve had students from years ago still stop by to see me, send me emails, and look me up online. I’m always touched that they still remember me.
• The friendships I’ve made with other staff. Some of my closest friends are those that I’ve met while teaching. I’ve shared ideas about not only work related issues, but also every other part of my life as well. And our Christmas parties are insane.
• The “Ah-Ha” moment when the students finally get what I’ve been teaching, and I can see it on their faces – and knowing I’ve opened a door in their minds that might otherwise remain closed.
• I like feeling intellectually superior to others – even if those others are in 3rd grade.

Some of you, like myself, have kids. But unlike others, I also have your kids – from 8:10 AM to 2:30 AM five days a week, four weeks a month, eleven months a year.

Now, it isn’t all fun and games. Like every other teacher, I bang my head against my desk about things like this:

• I really, really, really don’t get paid what I should. I even have a doctorate and make just enough to get by as a teacher. But I knew this getting into the profession. It was either this or paid assassin.
• Staff meetings. While it is important to communicate, sometimes we have meetings just to have them.
• Parents seem to think that I am responsible for raising their kids.
• Knowing that you have had, do have, or will have kids that just won’t make it. It is a sad fact of life.
• The government. Teaching in a public school is frustrating as hell because of government bureaucracy. No books? Blame the government. No chalk? Blame the government. Overcrowded rooms? Blame the government. Outdated books? Blame the government.

As my loyal readers know, I incorporate my geekiness into teaching – and for me, it isn’t hard to do.

Breaking it down: Being a teacher isn’t really any different from being a DM. Planning a D&D session is pretty similar to creating a lesson plan. I have to make things interesting for the players (students), I have to be able to improv and think fast on my feet, and I have to get the party (classroom) to work together to achieve a common goal.

For just over a decade, I’ve been using D&D – and other roleplaying games – to teach. I’ve used roleplaying and wargaming for History, Physics, Math, Danish, English, Religion, and Phys. Ed.

Yes – you read that last one right – Phys. Ed. I break out the foam swords and we go at it like a scene from Braveheart. The kids expend more energy on 90 minutes of swordfighting than they would on tennis… so why not?

Many games have broad applications in classrooms. I have used boardgames, wargames, CCGs and roleplaying games with my students as an integrated part of my curriculum. I lead role-playing games, some historical, some more fantastic and speculative. We use published roleplaying and wargame material, modifying it, of course, to fit our interests and needs.

Many teachers do lead exciting classrooms, but individual innovation or even variance requires constant effort. This is why I’ve chosen what has worked for me. Hell, to be honest, Gary Gygax practically taught me English.

And why do I use games? Aside from the fact that they work, they have traditions dating back to long, long ago.

• Board Games have been a valued and documented teaching method for centuries, dating back at least to Sumerian puzzles in clay and appearing in many forms today. Though often played for entertainment, the value of these games was recognized. Once maligned, chess may be the clearest mainstream example of the value of these games.
• Wargames have been developed in many forms to train soldiers and leaders. They are essentially refined board games. It was only in the 20th century that they have also become strongly recreational.
• Roleplaying Games and LARPs actually tap into the oldest forms of these traditions. While entertaining, storytelling and drama have always been powerful cultural elements, teaching the young the elements of their people, past, and opportunities.

And of course, all of this use of gaming in the classroom eventually led to the very successful Kids Need To Game program, which gives 250 kids from 5 different schools the opportunity to game with one another in a safe, secure environment 3 days a week.

Being a teacher is something that you have to have a passion for; it is more than just a job, rather it is who you are. It can be both rewarding and frustrating. There will be times when you will wonder why on earth you chose this profession and many more times knowing there is nothing else in the world you would rather do. It is a wondrous feeling knowing you will get to impact so many lives who will become our future.

I think I’m a good teacher. I guess that I have the paperwork to prove it – I’ve been Teacher of the Month 14 times and Teacher of the Year 3 times. But I hope, of course, that my arrogance in mentioning this will fade when I make the larger and far more important point that teaching awards have the amazing effect of forcing a teacher to stop and think – and I mean really think – about what I is doing when I am teaching.

This is because, along with joy, considerable embarrassment, and an almost overwhelming sense of humility, I have discovered that winning teaching awards feels a lot like (what I imagine) getting arrested must feel like: There is a sudden, surprisingly deep interest in your activities coupled with a powerful demand that you explain just exactly what it is you think you are doing.

So what am I doing – and how do I do it? I keep it to just 5 simple things:

It isn’t about me, you, the parents, the principle, or the school board. It’s about them

No matter what I have to do to make it work, I do it. I care if my kids understand what I am talking about. The parents don’t always agree, nor do the principle or the school board. I’m a rebel like that. The kids are what is most important, and my job is to teach them. That’s what I do.

Life’s gonna suck when you grow up

Remember the Dennis Leary song? Well, it is true. And I make sure that these kids understand that no matter how bad they think things are – being an adult is a hundred times worse. So they’d better concentrate on enjoying what they have now.

It’s not the fall that kills you; it’s the sudden stop at the end

I personally believe there is an element of courage in the finest teaching, a required element of risk, an earnest hope that you will be able to execute everything you need to do to reach the end of class effectively, arrive at your goals successfully, and exit the classroom knowing that the kids got something out of it.

That elephant in the classroom won’t go away

Some teachers fear debate, and so do some students. I let mine speak their minds. If they feel something is unfair – like me – I want them to tell me. Likewise, if there are a couple of kids ready to throw down on the playground after school, I like letting them talk it out amongst their peers. Ignoring problems won’t make them go away.

I am rubber you are glue…

I don’t remember that reply being very effective on the playground, to be quite honest. But when the kids are really trying my patience, I know that I get to go home and drink a legal adult beverage in peace. So I don’t let the little stuff bother me.

Teaching is thrilling because no day is the same. Teachers change lives. Indeed, they change the world. It might sound cliché, but the more you put into it, the more you get out. Teaching really is the best job in the world. Unlike many jobs teaching is a lifestyle choice – just think about the responsibility factor. As a teacher you are partly responsible for the development of a young person’s life. Being a teacher isn’t just about passing on academic knowledge, teachers must also immerse themselves in the daily lives of their pupils.

Teacher-student interaction shapes much of our society, so strong communicational abilities are a pre-requisite for teaching. If your influence holds sway you could leave a monumental impression on the lives of young people. In terms of becoming an inspirational life coach teaching is second to none. Despite the workload, is a fantastic job because it involves enormous creativity. It is immensely fulfilling.

At the end of the day, let me put it like this: My worst day teaching was better than the best day I ever had at any other job. I have never had a single day where I said, “I hate teaching.”