Since March of 2020, I have not spent much time in the local high schools. Working as a substitute teacher was a staple of my life before COVID, but when the scope of the pandemic became known I stayed home for most of the 2020-2021 school year. However, I have now had two doses of the Pfizer vaccine (with no side effects), and thought it was time to get back into teaching high school. As of April, I am back subbing in the high schools here in Cheyenne.
UNABLE TO PREDICT THE FUTURE
I was not looking forward to going to school. I went to bed early the night before last and
did not sleep particularly well. I had bad dreams which seemed to recount my worst days as a substitute. (One of the interesting things about working as a substitute teacher is you never know what kind of day you will have: uncontrollable freshmen, seriously engaged seniors, or bored students who sit quietly and just do their schoolwork. I seldom know what my day will be like or who I will be working with until I get to school).
That morning my alarm went off right on time at 5 a.m., I work up tired and fearful of a day, it was snowing, and I was asking myself, “Why am I doing this?” I was having real trouble coming up with an answer to that question and even decided I would not be subbing anymore. This would be my last day.
It was not long after arriving at school that I remembered why I am doing this, and all thoughts of resigning vanished. I was “teaching” computer design that day. While the class is computer design, and I am teaching, it is important to note I am not teaching computer design. The students are designing homes using computer-aided software, which is way beyond me. I begin all the classes that day by telling my story (it only takes me about 3 ½ minutes), and then, if the students are interested, I engage them in conversation about the good life. I had some interesting conversations that day. The teaching felt real and
important.
After 20 or 25 minutes of teaching the students about the good life, they sat quietly behind their computer screens and did their work. While the students worked, I worked on re-reading The Happiness Hypothesis, by Jonathan Haidt. I think this is the third time I have read this book, and I am reminded of where real happiness is found and how easily it is missed by so many.
Being a substitute teacher often combines my favorite passions, teaching and reading. As a substitute teacher I find it easy to read. Most of the time I can watch the students, complete the lessons which the regular teacher has left, address classroom problems, and still concentrate on the book in front of me. It is harder to read when I am at home. My mind quickly gets distracted by what needs to be done: an email I need to write, a bill I need to pay, something in the house which is broken that needs attention. But at school I am isolated from all those distractions.
In addition to the reading, I LOVE teaching high school students about the possibility that the good life is different from what they think it is. Of course, some days this teaching goes better than others, and I never know for sure if my teaching is having a positive impact. But I enjoy the experience.
HAPPINESS DOES NOT COME NATURALLY
A profound insight, from psychological studies done in recent years, is that our
Our lying Brain
brains tend to overestimate how future events will affect us. (This was a key idea in the class I recently finished from Yale University, Psychology and the Good Life). One of the reasons we tend to overestimate the future is that our brains tend to focus on just one set of events. For example, when I imagined teaching today, all I could imagine was a difficult class and being tired all day. But the class was not difficult, just the opposite, it was delightful. After being there for 20 minutes and downing my second cup of coffee, I was fully awake and alert. Before the day began, I could not allow my brain to see the positive things that could have happened.
This may be my favorite insight from positive psychology: happiness does not come to us naturally. Our brains are not wired for happiness and, unless we do the work of developing habits of happiness which help our brains think differently, happiness will always be elusive. I believe I have done a pretty good job of developing habits of happiness, but as this example shows, I am a work in progress.
Next week I will be teaching a German class, and I know what to expect. I will also be teaching an English class where the specifics will be unknown until I arrive at the school. However, this time I will try not to allow my brain to hijack my happiness. When I think about going to school, I will ask my brain to imagine well behaved-students and quiet time to read. And if the students are not well behaved, I will survive with good stories to tell.
