“I always thought about teaching,” says my new friend Byron as I sit in Java Kai, taking a break from writing.
“Oh, yeah?” I smile at Byron. He is easily in his 60’s, healthy, and wearing his freshly laundered Saturday t-shirt, coffee in one hand, Ipad in front of him. “What did you want to teach?”
“Well, I have a masters in Political Science, and I thought I could teach at the college, too.”
“Is that what you – did?”
“I was a financial analyst in Iowa, now I am here, retired.”
I smile, “I think the college kids would really benefit from someone teaching them something they loved.”
Byron smiles, and hesitates.
“What?” I offer.
“Well, what do you do when they ask you a question you don’t know the answer to? That’s what I am afraid of; kids today know so much.”
“I was just writing about that,” I honestly respond. “I tell them, ‘I don’t know.’ And some of them are shocked, but they aren’t tapping into the other 95% of things I do know. So there is one thing I don’t know. I just tell them I don’t know, but I will find out the answer by next class. Or at least try to.”
“Yeah, but if I was a kid today, I wouldn’t want to have me as a student.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t ask the questions I wanted answers to because I knew the teachers didn’t know and I didn’t want to embarrass them. But today -”
