You have to go into teaching with a notion that you want to motivate the kids. I went into
teaching because #1, I love English literature, I have always been an avid reader, and I
wanted to inspire students to learn and to love literature. I had some horrible and some
great teachers in high school. Once we were reading Oscar Wilde, and I loved him, so I asked
if we could read another one of his books. The teacher just said, “No. No one tells me what to
teach in my class.” I just stepped back and thought, “I am never speaking to this woman
again.” I still remember ignoring her and just passing notes the rest of the term. The next
year I had a great teacher. And that changed my notions about English literature and teach-
ing completely. Now I wanted to become a teacher so I could inspire students to learn.
I want to make a difference. A teacher cannot just be there for the paycheck. I run two ex-
tracurricular clubs, a book club, and a newspaper club, because I want to do it. One of my
colleagues said to me, 2 years ago, “Why do you do all of this? For tenure?” My answer is
that I love being there. I love the kids. I chaperone, volunteer for all events. The students
have so much energy and enthusiasm. If you work with them, you will have it too.
***Teaching as an Act of Resistance
By Michael Pezone
Michael Pezone has taught in a junior high school and a high school in New York City. He is a
White male, from a working-class Italian American family, who grew up in a suburban community
with people from similar backgrounds. He attended an Ivy League college, worked in the corpo-
rate world, and, in his mid-30s, decided to start a second career as a secondary school teacher. A
political radical and an intellectual, he was dissatisfied with the academic level and ideological
limitations of most of the students and professors in the teacher education program he attended.
Because of his political beliefs, he chose to student teach in a predominately minority suburban
school district. After a series of unsuccessful job interviews, he opted for a teaching position in “the
city.”—Alan Singer
The ideal teacher is a political prisoner who resists bondage by continuing to educate him-
self, and to educate others. He teaches for one reason only: to create a world of equality and
freedom. My role model as a teacher is Prometheus as described in classical Greek mythol-
ogy. Prometheus was the teacher of all arts and the giver of all good to mortal men, who, as
a result of his transgression, was severely and eternally punished by Zeus. When Zeus of-
fered him freedom in exchange for betraying mankind, Prometheus responded, “There is no
torment or contrivance in the power of Zeus to wring this utterance from me;... none of
these things shall extort from me the knowledge that may ward off his overthrow.” I believe
teaching can be an act of resistance to an oppressive social order.
I live in the suburbs and tried to find a job there. I knew I would have to downplay and dis-
guise my peculiarly political ideal of education. At 35 years of age, my overriding concern
was to get a job and begin my second career. My first interview was quite brief. The person-
nel administrator, who did the initial screening for her district, looked over my resume with
a quizzical expression. She commented on my Ivy League background, then asked why I was
sitting there with her. She listened suspiciously as I stated my desire to work with young
people. She suggested that I look for a job teaching in college and showed little real interest
during the remainder of the interview.
At one interview, I was asked to discuss my attitude toward “revisionist history.” At the
second, I was asked to describe my feelings toward “multiculturalism.” A third interviewer
22 CHAPTER 1