Part Four: Reality, again

On December 27, 1996 my wife and I left south Florida and moved our family to Raleigh, North Carolina.

South Florida had become far too crowded for us. The public school system in Broward County left much to be desired and we had easily outgrown our modest home.. I had never found full time work and Joyce's job, a job which she held for nine years, had become unsatisfying. So, we decided to move.

Raleigh seemed a logical place. After all, we spent two weeks every spring windsurfing on the Outer Banks. And Raleigh consistently received such high marks in the livability index that we just couldn't resist. Joyce's boss made a few phone calls and within a week Joyce was interviewing for a job. Unfortunately, she arrived in Raleigh just a few days after Hurricane Fran did its dirty work. We used the Internet to locate every possible detail about the place: schools, restaurants, neighborhoods, newspapers, everything.

For the first month I stayed home to be with our two children. I spent some time trying to find a job but in terms of higher education, Raleigh very quickly became the place not to be. There were no jobs at all.

Then one Sunday I read an advertisement for a position as Director of a non-profit computer lab/tutoring center with an indirect relationship with Needham B. Broughton High School, Raleigh's oldest and largest high school. The Director was responsible for maintaining a computer lab with twenty-two Windows95 workstations connected to an NT server and a dedicated 128kbs ISDN line. The Director was also responsible for the activities and behavior of the 30-75 high school kids who came to the lab everyday. The Wade Edwards Learning Lab was open 45 hours per week and the Director was the only employee. (I guess it's significant that the WELL was created by John and Elizabeth Edwards -- you've heard of them, right?)

Needless to say, I was never home. I had to work Sunday-Thursday 2-10 PM and Fridays 2-7 PM. I had to pick up my two children at preschool and then they would stay with me for an hour before a sitter took care of them for another hour, at which time my wife got off work, picked them up and brought them home. Most of my time was spent trying to control fifty teenagers, the majority of whom were not using the lab as intended. I had two floors under my control and absolutely no help. Furniture was broken and the computers needed constant attention. I had to quit the job in mid-August 1997. I ended up learning a lot about Windows NT and simply went nuts over that ISDN connection. But the job was not for me. I had to get back to teaching.

Over the summer I created six computer/Internet classes which were attended by more than 200 Wake County K-12 teachers and staff. I loved it! I knew it wasn't what I wanted, that is, to teach history, but at least I was teaching. During the final week I met several teachers who were employed by the Magellan Charter School which was to open in August 1997. I received a phone call from one of them who asked if I would like to help the school by teaching computer competency skills to their eighth grade class (28 kids). So, for seven weeks I spent four hours per week at Magellan teaching the kids about spreadsheets, databases, word processing, and the Internet.

In mid-September I learned that a community college was looking to fill a position to teach one section of western civilization. I drove to the college, filled out an application, submitted it and three days later was hired. Vance-Granville Community College is located in a rural area of North Carolina, thirty-six miles from home. What that all boiled down to is that I had to drive almost 150 miles per week to teach three hours of class. The pay was ridiculously low -- something like $900 per course (about half of what I made per course in south Florida). Not much I could do about that, however.

I had fun teaching this class although much to my dismay I noticed quickly that these kids did not have a very good foundation in history. One student, a particularly bright one, once blurted out that she "didn't want to think" and that she only wanted "the answer"! But, I must have done something right because I was asked to teach two classes in the Spring: the second half of western civilization as well as a class in US history since 1877. I only had about twenty students overall and I tried to make the best of the situation. The US history class began with five students. One dropped after the first assignment -- write a paragraph about your job.

I also did a bit of freelance computer work. I redesigned a corporate website for one of my neighbors (RMB Consulting & Research, Inc.) and I also served as a Windows95/98/Internet tutor and consultant. I also built furniture, took care of the house, hiked, camped, and windsurfed at Canadian Hole on the Outer Banks.

But I am still not teaching history full time. I have written to and in many cases spoken to department chairs of all the colleges in the area. Duke and Chapel Hill are, of course, out (do you have any idea why I said that?). I contacted Peace College, Meredith College, Durham Academy, Cary Academy, the Ravenscroft School and Saint Mary's School.

Which brings up a good point. Regardless of how good a teacher you are and despite the fact that you may have "the right stuff," you will not find a job unless someone is hiring. In other words, the worst thing you could do to yourself and your career (and your family) is to move to a place where you want to live and then announce, "here I am." It doesn't work. It is much better to be able to pick up and move at a moment's notice. Go where the jobs are! Of course, this is why I am not employed as a college instructor. I chose a lifestyle over my career. And this all has a great deal to do with my wife and my kids -- my family. I can't make the decision for you. You have to get your priorities straight. If you want to become an academic then realize now that you and your family will have to make sacrifices. Enough said.

Part Five: Eureka!

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Copyright © 2000 Steven Kreis
Last Revised -- August 03, 2009