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teaching | retirement | education
The Horns of a Dilemma
I attended the student Mass at the school I retired from last June.
After Mass, the new principal — I’ll call him Mr. D — approached me and asked for a moment of my time.
I expected he wanted to discuss some volunteer opportunities at the school.
It turns out that Mr. D has a dire situation. The current middle school math teacher will not be returning after this week. He wasn’t at liberty to say why. The school needs a middle school math teacher to finish out the year.
Before teaching 4th grade at this school, I taught middle school, mostly math and science, for 15 years in public school, a fact he is aware of.
The odd thing is, I have been sensing that something like this was coming toward me. Now, I must decide.
Do I return to the classroom to fill in for the rest of the school year, or until they find a full-time replacement?
I informed Mr. D that I already have several weeks of camping planned starting in March and going through the end of the school year. He agreed to work around those dates.