At a church event one recent Sunday afternoon, I was chatting with a few other moms when the subject of school came up. Two of us are homeschoolers, and two are not.
One of the latter moms began to express her appreciation for what homeschooling moms do, commenting that she didn’t think she could ever do it. I had to take that opportunity to confess that, in all honesty, there is a part of me that never wanted to be a teacher.
My husband and I both grew up in homes where our mothers were schoolteachers before they had children. Though their choice to homeschool was very much against the grain at that time, they did have some background experience and interest in teaching.
I had always planned on homeschooling when I had children because I believed in its positives. But though I accepted the idea in principle, I’m not sure I thought it through very practically. While I certainly have always said that I wanted to be a mother, I don’t know that I ever really wanted to be a teacher. The care and counseling of children comes naturally to me, but my few experiences of being in front of a classroom felt mostly awkward and intimidating.
Of course, it’s different when I’m just with my own children. But some of the same issues that would rattle me in front of a classroom crop up at times.