Monday, June 18, 2012

THE TEACHER

THE TEACHER: click for full story
By Charles Deemer

From The Colorado Quarterly, Summer 1969

            If I were a menial clerk, to whose gloom a Dostoevski or a Melville could give cosmic importance, then readily would I win your understanding. We are in an age the sensibilities of which are riveted to the absurd and what, after all, is more absurd than filling a ledger book with numerals, sorting out dead letters, filing away last year's purchase orders or pulling a lever in a factory? If I made my livelihood in so dreary a fashion, you would accept my gloom as being inevitable, deem it significant, and find in it an occasional metaphor for your own misgivings, whatever your employment; you would offer me understanding, empathy, sympathy, at least something more meaningful than what you now offer me, which is flattering but undue praise, or what usually is called "a good press." "


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2 comments:

Gerry said...

I couldn't help but read this entry in its entirety. Since I came from a family of teachers on both sides and was expected to become one, this article made me laugh, especially about the nameless gloom and finally with nothing to look forward to but achieving the mental status of the alcoholic's wife. I thought your assessment was pretty apt. I always considered myself lucky to have escaped the fate of a teacher by becoming partially disabled and unacceptable to the Mormon society in which I lived. I was then able to write novels, etc, while recovering from bouts of Chronic Fatigue (for want of a better word to describe my disability) I bought time with my inheritance from my father that kept me from having to take shit jobs for 12 years. Jobs like waiting on tables, clerking, or working in a factory aren't bad if you know CF is going to kick in and free you in time. My hardworking sisters who invested their inheritance and lost half of it cursed me from afar for being fake sick, in their jobs of teacher, nurse, secretary, etc. My nurse sister was the meanest, so I assume that job was really tough. My English teacher sister was a kind woman and sneered the least, but she became disabled at 58 from having 7 classes that triggered off a rare disease. She was happy with her disability so she could make quilts and write, too. I hope you are planning on retiring soon. You will have fun!

6/18/2012 11:54 AM
Charles Deemer said...

I'm already having fun. The gloom in this story, based on hanging with various high school teachers, is not shared in my current teaching situation. As adjunct faculty (for 15 yrs) I escape department politics. I'm pretty much left alone to my own devices, with the job security of a very popular subject matter, screenwriting. So I love teaching! No gloom ha ha.

6/18/2012 1:35 PM

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