Why do I work in education?

-Book report posters that include real mouse poop in a zip loc baggie

-Lists of famous painters including DaVinci, Michealangelo, and Bob Ross

-Explanations such as, " I know the book's genre is fiction because an alien wouldn't wear braces."

I chose to work in education because opportunity for all children is at the heart of our work and because the English major I started out in got too irritating when my interpretation of the Dog poem (that it was about dogs) wasn't literary enough. 

I thought about a new career after six years in this work when I looked around at my noneducator friends who had no college degree who were buying airplane tickects, houses, cars, and clothes.  The newspaper advertised for an executive secretary who could write grammatically correct correspondence.  So after teaching a morning of spring break school to some fourth grade English language learners, I headed to an office building on the classy side of town for an interview.

"How glamourous,"  I thought, "to work in such an impressive looking building, to wear clothes and not be concerned about marker washability, wire notebook snags, or sticky hand prints."  Then I opened the doors.  No love poured out.  No laughter. No original artwork.  By the time I got to the office on the third floor, I was whispering "sucker" everytime I passed those sorry employees in the hall.  Afterall, I had just come from a morning of work where I had seen eyes light up over learning how to use a Spanish/English dictionary.  Who in this office knew the joy of discovering that burgers and mocos were the same thing? 

I went home proud to be in education and still broke.  As if business were really for me anyway.  Estimation is how I balance my check book, I am already looking forward to my tax return, and if the school children need something, I tell someone and they buy it. Besides, education is about kids learning, not money.  Right? 

Last week I went to a meeting of school "finance people." So what I think now is that I need to study up on school finance in addition to personal budgeting. 

To think that finance is separate from school improvement and curriculum is inadequate.  Without knowledge of school improvement and curriculum going into financial decisions, how can we be sure that our money and our teachers are working toward the same end?

Learning for all children is what our work is about whether our specialized knowledge is finance or school improvement and curriculum.