Monroe Multipliers

Contrary to popular sentiment, there are more reasons to be a school teacher than June, July, and August. True enough, those are three great reasons, ones that I intend to hold onto with a death grip until I retire. The other major reason that I enjoy the job is the possibility of becoming a multiplier. The definition of a multiplier is one who is able to multiply their influence: not only do they influence the people with whom they come into contact each day, they can potentially influence the future individuals that the original influencee will eventually influence, thereby multiplying their influence. Follow all of that?

I ran into two of the best multipliers this weekend while back in my hometown. The person most responsible for my beginnings as an English teacher is my old high school English teacher, Jackie Grier. Her most endearing quality fell in that she saw fit to not be daily impressed by my wit and clever antics, a practice I thought would be a general certainty. She criticized and demanded and preached; she brought personality and passion to ancient literature; and she wasn't afraid to pressure and guilt students into getting out of their comfort zones. She must have missed all those classes in college that teach about nurturing the souls of those darling students and creating a safe and loving environment for them to naturally develop. Any day I got too comfortable, she knocked my ass humbly back into my seat.

While I always knew I would teach, coaching wasn't something I really thought much about until I was coached  by Brian Hazelton for high school football. Originally I didn't go out for football because of a love for it; frankly, I was scared of the social ramifications if I didn't. While there, though, I developed a love for it; and more importantly, I learned about the type of influence I could have and wanted to have as a coach. From Coach Hazelton I learned how to talk to kids. Talk to them like they are men who are trusted, and they will behave like ones. Tell it like it is, don't fill air with ridiculous motivational cliches that no one believes, and always ask more. And be available. For anything. I remember knowing that I could ask that man anything and still expect a straight, honest answer, even if it was one I didn't want to hear. I also remember walking away from conversations with him always wanting to be just a little bit better.

I had several great teachers and coaches; I'm not one with jaded memories of authority figures who just didn't see what I had to offer. These I write about tonight because I look at what I am professionally now, and I know that more than most others, it is their traits that I've multiplied now as an English teacher and coach.

The multiplying continues. One of my former players who later also was a volunteer assistant coach for me is out interviewing now for teaching and coaching positions. A former student is currently at UNI, preparing to enter the ranks of English teaching. I don't know if I can attribute any of what they have and will become to what they saw from me in our time together. But I can hope. It is that hope, along with the hope of June, July, and August, that keeps me going ten years in.