To the Editor:
In 1958, my Penn State professors thought I was a little bonkers to do the Ford Program for liberal arts grads to become a teacher rather than attend Villanova Law School in the fall.
They warned me about the genteel poverty awaiting, but this South Philly product had Frost’s poem – “The Road Not Taken” – going for him. I’m not a detail-oriented kind of guy, and law is all about the devil being in the details.
Public school teaching provided me ample time to supplement my poor salary with related fields: Tutoring, op-ed columnist, teacher workshops, two sabbaticals, and motivational speaker, all closely akin to my liberal arts background and all of which helped me to be a better teacher.
Once a month I play cards with some downtown buddies– a lawyer, a doctor, and a dentist, all retired. The stakes have gone up with the times, but this schoolteacher can still hang in there.
The genteel poverty and the big bad wolf, thank God, found no way into my life. Sure, teachers deserve better pay, but when better pay didn’t exist in my era, we found ways to make do. At 86, I still teach part-time.
