Musings from a Not-So-Master Teacher

Recently, while lounging around my in-law's house, I stumbled across a t.v. show about the "dirtiest jobs." I'm not sure what it's called. Perhaps "America's Dirtiest Jobs." If I wasn't feeling lazy, I'd open up a new tab and search on google.

Anyway, it struck me as I watched the show that most of the men who worked these jobs seemed to find satisfaction in their work. It was nothing sentimental. Nobody said, "I'm just really passionate about sorting through garbage." Yet, the men seemed to take pride in the fact that their work was literally saving lives. In fact, as the host interviewed each man, they mentioned work injuries and hard experiences, but each admitted that they had worked for nearly thirty years.

The cynic in me wonders how they respond away from the camera. Are they simply rationalizing a horrible daily existence? Or is it something different? Perhaps they find satisfaction because their work is meaningful and challenging. While others search for fame and recognition or the climb of a corporate latter, these men have found a purpose in solving the world's sanitation problem.

I doubt that any of them will ever have a picture on a candle, give a speech to aspiring youth or have a library named in their honor. Nobody will paint a mural in honor of the men who work dirty jobs. Yet, I wonder if ultimately they are the ones who found the secret to a good life: find something meaningful and challenging and then stay faithful to it on a daily basis.

Where this gets personal is that secretly I do so many things as a teacher for the recognition, for the enjoyment and for the sense of superiority I can feel when I have done something "big."  Yet, ultimately, if I want to make it long-term as a teacher, I should pay attention to the lessons of the "dirty job" people.  Perhaps the good life is found in being unrecognized and underpaid in return for something that is meaningful on a daily basis.