Student warned me, ‘We’re gonna break you.’ And they did.

“If this ain’t your cuppa tea, we don’t want you teaching here.”

That was broadcast advice from a Richland County School District One administrator at a districtwide teachers’ rally. Even then, after having taught my first week or so of Columbia High School Spanish, I realized my tea was going down harder than liquor.

Fast forward just a few months to November 2010. Mentally broken down, crying on the weekends in anticipation of Monday morning, I made plans to quit my job in December and return to the corporate world.

What had happened? I had just earned a master’s degree in teaching English as a Foreign Language in 2008. I liked teaching people as a BlueCross corporate trainer and speaker.

So when our family’s plans to move to China in 2009 to teach English went on hold, the South Carolina PACE (Program of Alternative Certification for Educators) program offered me a plan B to fulfilling my call to language education.

But. Teenagers. Classroom management. Cultural backgrounds different than my own. Multitasking. First-year teaching. Shenanigans!

These ingredients poisoned my tea.

How could I teach when half of my students were talking to each other, ignoring me? Others distracting my attention, while ringleaders hid my flashcards or wrote the F word on the whiteboard behind my back? Or even standing up on the desks and rapping out loud?

One girl, who I learned was part of a gang, told me and the class my first week, “We’re gonna break you.”

Maybe you’re thinking: Well, you must’ve just been a real meanie to them to deserve that kind of retaliation. Or, you’re just a pushover.

I wasn’t a pushover, but I may have presented as “too nice.”

Before the semester began, I was shocked at a three-day teacher training, when other seasoned teachers became my students in a mock first-day classroom role-play. Their kind, professional tenor turned to rude, obnoxious, and untamable as they pretended to be the students I would live with for the next semester.

Even a fellow teacher at Columbia High warned me, “Don’t smile for the first week.” This was a compassionate guy. Was he kidding? No!

Now there were other teachers, who had that perfect chemistry of kindness, counter-sassiness and skill in classroom management to pull it off. These teachers, and the administration there, tried to help me stomach the tea.

Ultimately, I returned to the corporate world with a new appreciation for teachers and the challenges of classroom teaching, especially to high school students.

Happily, for the last seven years, I have thrived as an instructional designer of online courses and videos, fulfilling my call to education. Not always violated by the constant chaos that tore me down in such a short time, but restored now and contributing in a tranquil, solitary way, I reflect on at all, as I sip on a warm cup of tea.

This story was originally published May 6, 2018 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Student warned me, ‘We’re gonna break you.’ And they did.."