Why I teach

I think it is because it is in my blood. I come from a family of teachers. My grandfather, Francis McHugh, was a long time history teacher and administrator in Lowell, Massachusetts. He had three children, Paul, my father, Ellen and Suzanne my aunts. All of them at one point or another were in the classroom. My father spent his career teaching medical students. My Aunt Ellen taught high school and my Aunt Suzanne taught Elementary and Junior High School and then was a long time school administrator. On my mother's side my Aunt Pauline was a long time Biology teacher at Cobham Hall Girls School in Kent, England. All through growing up, though, the last thing I ever thought I would do was be a teacher. The main reason was I felt at the time it would be pretty frustrating teaching someone like me. Not that I did not feel I had some abilities, but my immaturity would frustrate the most patient person.

I graduated from college with a degree in American Studies and had spent most of my free time in high school and college either running or playing the cello. I thought to myself how could I combine all of those interests in one job, and I started thinking I ought to teach. But also towards the end of high school, I had an experience that started making me think differently about teaching too.

One night, I was watching a made for TV movie called The Jericho Mile with my Dad. The movie is the story of Larry "Rain" Murphy (played by actor Peter Strauss in the movie) who is serving a life sentence in jail for murder. Through the help of a coach, Murphy discovers he is an Olympic class runner. He trains inside the walls, but the warden won't let him leave the prison to run in the Olympic Trials. On the day of the Trials, he runs his own race inside the walls on a crummy track and runs faster than the winner of the trials. During the movie, his coach is questioned by a friend as to why he is wasting his time with a prisoner. The coach explains that he coaches to share his knowledge and get his athletes to accomplish more than he could and he does not care if his best athlete is a prisoner. At the end of that conversation, my Dad says "that's why I teach." To which I said "what?" My Dad goes on to tell me what a thrill it is to see a student he has trained take the instruction he has given him and do something better than he could have imagined or done himself.

At the time, I did not know what to think about what my Dad said. But I thought about it a lot. And as Steve Jobs has said, it is impossible to connect the dots in your life looking forward, but it is very, very clear looking backward. During college I began to believe that I could have an influence on people to do better than they thought they could, and I got a kick out of it when they did. I now believe I teach to see my athletes discover something about themselves they never knew. If you can take a student who does not think they are an athlete and get them to win a race it is a pretty big thrill and better yet that athlete now has redefined who they are. 

So here is the final scene from The Jericho Mile. I found it on You-tube. It is pretty hokey to look at now. You have to remember this is 1970's made for TV movie. But the production of the movie is pretty interesting. It was filmed inside the walls of Folsom Prison in California and many of the extras are actual inmates of the time. The track they are running on is apparently still there and used by inmates. Peter Strauss supposedly prepared for the movie working with UCLA track coach Jim Bush who got Strauss to run a 4:30 mile. The background music is the Rolling Stones "Sympathy for the Devil" which is a pretty cool song. Murphy has just heard the news of the winner of the Olympic Trials and the time he ran. Enjoy the rest.