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My Favorite Teacher Didn’t Have Kids

by AmyRainbow

My very first teacher was so pretty. She had long brown hair and blue eyes and sounded just like a Disney princess. Ms. N. never raised her voice and she made funny faces when she read stories. She tucked her straight hair behind her ears and after school I tried to perfect her look in my mom’s vanity mirror, but I could never get it just right. I was obsessed with being the teacher’s pet and eventually I  think I was. Ms. N. cast me as the sun in the school play because she loved my smile. I wanted to be just like her when I grew up.

Ms. N. even had a wedding, right at school! All the girls and boys in the tiny Catholic preschool  were paired up and asked to be flower girls and attendants. I wore a cream dress and gloves to look just like the bride. It was the best day of my four-year old life, but I knew what was going to happen next. Miss N was going to replace us with a baby of her very own!

But it didn’t happen. Ms. N. never had kids and she was the best teacher ever. She recently retired after forty years of teaching. Is it possible that her role as teacher was enough to fill her life with joy? Or was she sick of dealing with kids at the end of the day? For some reason I don’t think she ever tired of being around her students and is still involved in their lives today. I always wondered if she chose not to have kids or if she was unable to have them. Ms. N. and I are still friends and maybe someday she will tell me, but I will never ask.

It is because of Ms. N. and other teachers that I decided to teach little ones. I never thought that not having kids of my own mattered, but I think it made me a better teacher. Ms. N. influenced me in so many ways, but I can’t honestly say if I am copying more than Ms. N.’s hair style by not having kids.

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Posted on October 21, 2011 at 4:23 pm in Childfree by Choice, Choice   |  RSS feed |   Reply   |   Trackback URL

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3 Comments to “My Favorite Teacher Didn’t Have Kids”

    
  1. Lisa Gayagay
    October 22, 2011 at 9:13 pm

    This is great Amy. Being a teacher and without kids relate with each other but not having kids does not mean that the teacher will not be a great teacher. I have known a teacher during my elementary days who was the kindest teacher I ever met and who was single for the rest of her life. Many say that single teachers and childless teachers are often times cruel to their students because they don’t have kids but it is not true.

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  2. lauracarroll
    October 25, 2011 at 11:39 am

    Hey–Laura La Vie Childfree here…you make me think back and I can recall two teachers I had that did not have children of their own — that I know of — one was a nervous nellie who could not control a room so it was probably was a good thing that she did not have kids of her own ! The other was a tough English teacher who I learned So much from….there are also favorite childfree school counselors out there, my sister in law being one of them, and Aggie, who I recently featured in a post at La Vie http://lauracarroll.com/2011/06/when-kids-ask-if-you-have-kids/ Thanks for bringing some good memories to mind! ~Laura http://laviechildfree.coom http://livetruebooks.com

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  3. amywnk
    November 21, 2011 at 8:45 pm

    Lisa and Laura thanks for sharing! – Amy

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