GUEST POST: WRITTEN BY LISA DAVIS

Like many moms out there, I decided to go back to school in my late 30’s to pursue a new career-in this case, teaching. I started out taking one class at a local college with a good reputation. I figured I would get my feet wet and see how it went before I decided to enroll in a program to earn a teaching certificate. I had no idea what to expect or what the other students in the class would be like. Let’s just say it was a class composed primarily of nontraditional students.

At the end of my first day of class, we all had to sign a form authorizing a background check in order for us to be allowed to observe in the classroom and work with the children we would be observing.  A (much) older man in the class who, quite frankly, gave me the creeps (he lived with his 90-year-old mother, watched altogether too much TV, and seemed just nuts in general) absolutely refused to sign the form! He started yelling how he didn’t want anyone prying into his private life and that he didn’t need a background check.

At this point, the teacher tried to explain that it was state law and he was required to undergo a background check in order to observe and that he needed to complete his observation hours to graduate from the program. The man was irate and eventually become irrational. Finally, the teacher suggested they speak about it privately after class. I remember turning to the student sitting next to me and commenting, “We’ve got a stalker in our class!”

On a different day in this same class, our teacher, clearly a foreigner and with a very thick accent, challenged us to determine which country he was from. He literally went around the room, asking each of us in turn if we could figure out what country he was born in. When he got to me, I blurted out, “Turkey!” He was shocked. He said that no one in his class had EVER gotten that question right and he demanded to know how I could have known that! I mumbled something about being good with accents and knowing lots of foreign exchange students in college. It was baloney. How could I admit that I knew exactly where he was from because just the night before on NOVA I had watched the gripping documentary, “The Family That Walks on All Fours” – about a Turkish family with a rare genetic brain abnormality that causes siblings to be mentally impaired and to walk on all fours like apes! That accent was stuck in my head for good after watching the movie.

Towards the end of the term, we were assigned a group project. I was thus introduced to “group work” – two particularly evil words. I have NEVER – NOT EVER — had a good experience with “group work” while in graduate school. I don’t know why-wait, yes I do! It’s because I’m the only one willing to do the work! So, for my group project I was placed with “stalker student” and this other student who had shown up to class a grand total of three times since the semester had started. Needless to say I did the vast majority of the work, all while trying to tame “stalker student’s” insane ideas and bring him back to planet earth. Fun!

It all makes our malleable little kids sound easier to handle! Have you thought about going back to school after having kids?