Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”

“Teaching today is way more than having the students remember who the third president was.”

This is not about a typical junior high school but about the work of a teacher, Mike, in a specific junior high school. Mike’s life gives us much to ponder. Mike has taught at the same junior high school for 27 years. “And I love it!”

Current enrollment is 958. It’s in the Village, a town of 32,000 adjacent to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. “The homes of a large percentage of the students are in a mobile park. That 57% of the students are on a free/reduced lunch fee evidences very low family income. The demographics of the school (grades 6, 7 and 8) are: 53% Hispanic, 38% White, 1.7% Black, with Asian and multiracial students making the rest. 20% of our students come from a single parent home.”

Though Mike has taught history and geography, eventually he switched to Physical Education. “P.E. provides a less structured setting where I have more opportunities to interact with the kids. If a student doesn't quite seem themselves, I find ways to have a brief chat with her/him. I leave in the afternoon not wondering if the kids will remember to bring their P.E. uniform the next day but wondering if Johnny is going to get a meal that evening. All this can be emotionally draining. However, the kids enjoy our chats; they like knowing that there's an adult that cares about them as a person.”

The biggest impact of the pandemic has been, as everywhere, the devastation wreaked on human relations. “In the case of our students and myself it has meant that we all miss the person-to-person contact. It’s not fair that everything just stopped!”

Community has been a great part of school for Mike’s students. To assure that not all was lost, he and students Zoomed once a week. “Whoever wants to can hop on.” They say the kids really need to be with their teachers. We, the teachers, needed them just as much.”

Mike is happy to report this: “Our biggest success has been the number of our students who are becoming the first person in their family to go to college. They work hard on academics and are determined to create better opportunities, for themselves and those after them.”

Most farewells to Mike are like this: ”Thanks for looking out for me, thanks for caring about me, remember that time when....” 

Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”

Reply to Fr. Don at: DTalafous@csbsju.edu

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