Teaching is for the Birds

Of all the spaces I’ve landed in throughout my life, I am not shocked that this past year I found myself in front of kids. I’ve often referred to myself as Teddy Poppins in jest, with a smile spanning ear to ear as I recounted stories of the children I’ve walked alongside. I am a theatre artist, a storyteller, poet, singer, and writer. Yet somehow, there was always a baby to be found in my arms or a toddler attached to my side. It was with great pride that I- after many years of substitute teaching, babysitting, godfathering, leading camps, and workshops- contracted my first year of teaching as an official employee.

I teach at a new school that challenges societal norms as it pertains to the education of our children. This was not only my first year teaching there, it was the school’s first year being there. We learned so very much. There have been many tears, laughs, and stark moments of tension and questioning. We are all finding our way and I- a nontraditional teacher in the way of education- have been challenged to meet with my core creator self to make ways out of no ways for this past and especially this coming year.

I recently picked up a book written by my Great Aunt Minnie Lee called, “Teaching is My Life.” I had only read it in parts- a little bit afraid of what I might encounter… afraid that she would tell me to stick to the profession strictly and bow out of my other aspirations. I heard and read quite the opposite. It was like witnessing a documentary of a young dreamer who dreamed with unmitigated passion and persistence. I was enamored with her creative edge and fortitude. She was like me! And she was here in the present talking to me again, much like when I was a little boy sitting at her feet on her living room floor, assessing her questions, presence, and speech.

As I breathe into this coming year, I go with that same passion and fortitude. I go with the support of Great Aunt Minnie and the grace to pursue a million possibilities- should they find me in a classroom, a stage, or elsewhere. And I dedicate this first, full, official teaching effort from this concluded first-year at a new school, to my great aunt. Thank you Auntie.

In this environment I learned to dream and fantasize. In the evenings I would watch the birds fly over head and imagine they were students on their way home from school and that I had been their teacher. -Minnie Lee Holmes Bradwell