The Cult

The people I surround myself with is 100% on purpose.

I have been really bad about keeping up with my blog. So first off, I want to apologize for that because I know that people are actually reading this and somewhat enjoying it. I feel like I owe something to my readers to give them a schedule to keep me on. But dang it, if it's not a parallel to what I wanted to talk about.

How many teachers have friends outside of work that are teachers? It's a phenomenon that I never really noticed until my wife brought it up. I don't know if it's just us or if this impacts other teachers:

We have very few teacher friends.

Hear me out, it's not like we weren't friendly with other teachers or were polite at required functions. I have taught with some wonderful human beings over my 13 years. But there aren't many that I would purposefully hang out with outside of school. There have been attempts at Friday Appetizers or other social events, but nothing that I really wanted to do. The people I do click with, I've gone to their house to swim, or play my nerdy board games with. To do quick math, 6 / 70 = 8% of the staff I worked with are people that I would want to see outside of school.

The culture of education isn't set up to be as warm and fuzzy as it looks like on the outside. When we talk outside of school, it's about our collective traumas and what Jonny did today that completely took me off guard. We one-up each other with horror stories and I-can't-believe-its and I-really-earned-this-beer. We laugh about the crazy kids that we have but there isn't healing or real camaraderie. It was like soldiers in mess trading horror stories of the front lines. Not everybody comes home.

We are told to wear our school colors and learn the songs. When we are out in public and in our little slice of internet, we have to keep everything nice and clean and never disparaging. It's so hard talking with those outside of the schools because they only know 10% of what's really going on. Just like the military or anything else in public service.

Sounds like a cult right?

At Reynolds and Reynolds we are also very cultish, but it's got such a different flavor. I got to clock out early to go play corn hole with my team. We do monthly birthday lunches to celebrate different people on our team. I have already hung out with more of my coworkers after hours than I ever had at any of the schools I was at. I have found other new hires that all have teaching backgrounds and EVEN THOUGH ONE OF THEM DOESN'T BELEIVE THAT TATOR TOTS ARE PROPER POTATOES we have already become close friends. 

R&R wants us to feel like we are our own people. In the first month I haven't found anything that is prohibiting my growth, or trying to force me to do something that is a hinderance to my success. Everyone around me is pushing for my success too. They share their stories of terrible people to work with, but it's not "the company". It's always outside. 

I tend to buy into things that I really believe will help me be a better dad, a better husband, or a better person. So far, this month has seen an increase in all of those things. I am spending more time with my family on weekends. I am able to see and celebrate the successes of my wife. I am in charge of my own success at work. These are promises that were made by my almighty cult leaders. I think I might just have to drink that Kool-Aid.