We do our best

When I was 10 years old, I knew in my heart that I wanted to be a teacher. When I was 23 years old, I graduated from Covenant College with a teaching degree in secondary education history. When I was 30 years old, I became headmaster of a Christian elementary/middle school that helped form my goals to become a teacher many years before. At 40, I was unemployed and casting about for the right landing place. 

Little did I know that the best job for me was waiting behind the walls of a correctional facility. First as a substitute teacher for juveniles, and then as a full time instructor for adult learners, the Lord has led me each step of the way in my desire to teach. There are many challenges, but also many rewards, to what I do. It never entered my imagination 41 years ago that becoming a teacher could involve students in prison, but I would not trade this for any other job in the world today. 

As a colleague says somewhat tongue-in-cheek sometimes, we’re ‘making a difference, changing lives.’ We never know of the true impact we make with the men in our classes. We see some appear to make true changes in the lives, and we hope it lasts for them. Every now and then, we hear of a success, or we hear of one that loses his battle after his release. We do our best.