Here we are now, a bona fide Theology teacher at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Baltimore. As I am writing this, I am actually spending a lot of the day in parent/teacher meetings along with my fellow faculty members. I am getting to know some of them, and it has been a pretty easy day overall, albeit a LONG day. Mind you, this is very different than what I was used to, as I have been out of full-time work for over 4 years in all honesty. But, God has been in every step of this, and I am going to make this work. There are some minor issues - for one, there are some socially liberal fellow faculty who think that the school's Catholic identity "hinders" their more progressive visions of things (my question is why these individuals are not in the public school system if they think like that?). But then again, the administrators of this school are Jesuits, so there you go. To the credit of the Jesuits though, one thing they have always emphasized is excellence in education, so if I am to teach in a Catholic school, I guess a Jesuit academy is a good place to start.
My schedule entails five classes teaching a course called "Sacraments and Morality," and for the most part the kids are actually quite good to work with. Of course, they are typical teenagers, so they will have certain quirks, but that is to be expected. However, compared to the short time I subbed in the public school system in Hagerstown, this is actually a decent group. I am teaching 11th graders, and it has been a fairly easy transition from teaching 6th-graders in CCD as a volunteer. I am also one of only 3 faculty (including the principal) that possesses a doctorate, although I think the President of the school is also pursuing one as well. I am actually looking to have a very decent tenure here, and with a good salary I cannot complain.
As I mentioned, getting to this point has been a series of one miracle after another, and while things are not ideal yet - Zoe my rabbit needs to be rehomed as she is very loud at night and I have lost a lot of sleep because of her. I also still have Mickey, Barbara's cat, as well, and juggling taking care of him with the two of mine is a challenge, especially when my home has been reduced from a three-bedroom mobile home to a single rented room in a Baltimore row house in a questionable area of town. Then there is that smell out there - every once in a while, a putrid aroma like skunk spray hits my nostrils, and I was wondering what that nasty smell was. After all, a huge city like Baltimore is not exactly crawling with wildlife (unless you count the squirrels and pigeons) so skunks are not in huge abundance. I found out that this nasty smell is called mercaptan, and it is the same substance one can find in both flatuence and halitosis. Now that I know what it is, it does ease some anxieties though. After all, standing at the bus stop at the corner of Greenmount and 25th in downtown Baltimore is not what you would call a beautiful neighborhood, but in reality no one ever bothers me there. All in good timing, I will eventually get a better house.
On that note, we are still talking to the occasional parent who stops in, and it is honestly not necessarily a bad thing. Being I have only been here a week, I don't know many of these kids yet, but at least the parents will know me as their kids' teacher. However, it promises to be a LONG night, as we need to stay here until after 5. But, I am salaried now, so it goes with the territory.
That catches up things for the week, so I will stop at this point and will have some other pithy insights next week. Thank you for allowing me to share, and will see you next week!
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