Glimmers in Teaching
Deep Dives
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John Green
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The article opens with a quote from John Green's 'The Fault in Our Stars' about falling in love slowly then all at once - a metaphor the author uses to frame their journey into teaching. Readers would benefit from learning about Green's background as both a bestselling YA author and former chaplain/teacher, connecting to the article's themes of meaningful connection with young people.
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Play (activity)
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The article's central thesis is that the author discovered teaching through play - from daycare to camp counseling to clown auditions. The psychology and developmental science of play, including how it facilitates learning and social bonding, directly underpins the author's intuitive discovery that 'we played, we laughed, and we learned.'
I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.
John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
I first flirted with the idea of being a teacher in high school. My mom ran a daycare center out of our suburban home. We had cribs, playpens, plastic toys, and Fisher-Price furniture spread throughout the house. Weekdays, working parents would drop their babies off early before rush hour traffic. If I wasn’t awake, dressed, and out of my bedroom by 6:00 AM, my mother was kicking me out to put a baby down for their morning nap. Once my door closed, my bedroom was no longer my own; off limits.
I learned to change diapers before I learned to drive. When I got home from school, it was my job to gather the sleepy-eyed napping babies, change their diapers, and play until pickup. For years, I was eager to come home from school and be joyfully ambushed by kids. Hide-and-seek. Horsey. Coloring books. Snack time. Simon Says. Duck, duck, goose. My afternoons were filled with laughter before I retreated to my bedroom to do homework. There is nothing like the dopamine rush I would get when making those little ones laugh. I watched babies grow from drooling and babbling to toddling and talking. When some toddlers aged into preschool, more babies were introduced to our little daycare family. At 16, however, I wanted a paying job, so I naturally when looking for something where I could continue working with children.
My first serious job was working summers at Camp Greenwood, a daycare and sports camp attached to an athletic center. I worked my way up from games and crafts to coaching, lifeguarding, and eventually, planning field trips as the head counselor. The closer I got to graduating high school, though, the greater the pressure was to attend college, decide on a major, and start preparing for my future career. I knew that I loved making kids laugh, but I couldn’t be a professional camp counselor or run a daycare. Teachers worked with children, but I wasn’t a very good student. I didn’t like school. Learning was hard and my classes were boring. You have to be smart to be a teacher. I loved playing with kids, and making them laugh, but that didn’t fit with my school experiences. In my
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