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On my last visit to Saint Elizabeth’s School I sat down and had a long conversation with Mrs. Spruill, the Reading teacher, while my tutees were at lunch. Mrs. Spruill was talking to me about my future plans for a career. I explained to her my life long dream of becoming a pediatrician and before I could finish my sentence she said something to me that I will never forget.
“Kristina, when you pick your future career makes sure you pick it because you really love it, not just because of the validity of the name.” She then went on to explain a long story about her own reasons to become a teacher.
Ever since she could remember, her parents have told her she would become a teacher when she grew up. Just like her grandmother’s mother, her grandmother and her own mother. She never even thought of a different occupation until her second year of teaching. She was in love with the idea of following in her families’ foot steps.
Everyone in her family was a successful teacher. She loved the idea of being asked by other people what she did for a living and being able to reply, “I am a teacher, just like all the rest of the girls in my family.” She also liked the fact that teachers are well respected in society because you are helping people become successful in the future.
Eventually she graduated from college with a teaching degree and got a job at a local elementary school teaching third graders. She soon realized she had chosen the wrong path in life. She started to hate being in a classroom every day, spending her long days with children, and grading papers till all hours of the night. Mrs. Spruill was in a bad mood all the time and all she wanted to do was quit her job.
She quickly understood that she was in love with the name associated with being a teacher. She loved the fact that she could tell other people that was her career and she loved following in her families footsteps. Thank God in her situation she eventually started to love her job a little more and now has been teaching for twenty years.
This situation relates to Shakespeare play “The Twelfth night” that we are reading in class. The main character Duke Orsino, a powerful nobleman of Illyria, is in love with a woman named Olivia, who was a noble Illyrian lady. He says, “Why so I do, the noblest that I have. Oh, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, me thought she purged the air of pestilence (Act 1, scene 1, line 20).” Since the first time he saw her he fell in love. Olivia has recently lost her brother in a shipwreck and claims she will not leave her house for seven years. Despite how much the Duke claims he loves her, he does not ever try and go visit. Instead he would send messengers after her trying to win her over. The Duke is a good man, but he is a lazy pretender. He was in love with the idea of being in love.
Just like Mrs. Spruill was in love of with the idea of being a teacher, the Duke was in love with the idea of being in love. In both situations their plan was a matter of image or external. Their goal was not out of internal love and compassion.