An ode to teachers and educators for their dedication and service, For the Love of Kids, was written by Fairewinds' chief engineer Arnie Gundersen, and is his nod to the hard work and commitment it takes to teach and make a difference in students' lives. The article, written and published in 2003, was requested by the National Education Association magazine, NEA Today.After being fired by Nuclear Energy Services in 1990 for notifying the company president of radiation safety violations and loss of control of radiation materials, Mr. Gundersen went from being a senior vice president of a major nuclear power consulting corporation to teaching high school by day and writing NGO commissioned nuclear expert reports by night. It was never Mr. Gundersen's intention to step into the role of head of the classroom, patroller of the halls, grader of papers and tests but it was a challenge he accepted that required more skill and pizazz, longer hours, and more initiative than any senior vice president position has ever required. With the start of October, autumn is in full swing and school buses are packed with eager young minds ready to learn and grow. It's a time to remember that the teachers, whose work is to instill these ready brains with a lifelong love of learning, are not in it for the money, power, or prestige but rather, for the love of kids.
For the Love of Kids written by Arnie Gundersen
Teaching is my second career. I am a corporate retread. I spent 20 years inindustry after graduating from college with a master’s degree innuclear engineering, progressing from an entry-level engineer to seniorvice president.I must confess that I didn’t suddenly see the superiority ofteaching and jump. No, I was pushed. Shoved. In fact, jettisoned. Oneday I noticed a serious safety violation in our nuclear facility,reported it to management, and was promptly fired. So I blew thewhistle, got sued by my former company, lost my house, and was finallyexonerated in Congressional hearings-and that’s when I landed inteaching. I took a job at a boarding school where I could get both asalary and a roof overhead for me and my wife and family.Now I’m a public school teacher and loving it. And I’ve learned somethings that very few people in the higher echelons of the businessworld ever find out.Eight years of teaching have taught me that teachers facesignificantly more challenges, play many more roles, and are paidconsiderably less than their corporate counterparts.Were you brainwashed into believing teaching salaries are lowerbecause corporate employees have more demanding jobs? Don’t believe it!I have never worked harder in my life. People think that when the kidsleave school, we kick back and unwind. Only our families see us gradingpapers on Sunday, planning lessons at 10 p.m., setting up labs at 7a.m., or using our weekends and “long” summers to take recertificationcourses or pursue advanced degrees. Studies prove teachers work aminimum of 50-hours each week.As teachers, we face not just long hours but also incomparableresponsibility. Why is teaching so difficult? The velocity of ourdecision making is one reason. Teachers must make a critical decisionevery 20 seconds. What direction to take a lesson when the kids don’tget it? How to discipline the student in the third row withoutdisrupting the whole class? How to recover momentum after a publicaddress announcement? Rarely is anyone in business under that type ofminute-by-minute pressure. Corporate employees have time to mull thingsover, to reconvene a meeting in an attempt once again to reach aresolution, or even to sleep on an idea and finalize it the next day.Educators make more decisions in one class block than most businessemployees do in an entire day!And they just keep coming. In business, if I had just dealt with acustomer’s issue, I could break for coffee or talk to a co-worker toclear my brain. In teaching, after I deal with a challenging student, Ilook up and see 23 other faces requiring my immediate attention.Business results are tangible. Did the division or the product makemoney or lose money? It is usually easy to see a cause and effectrelation to one’s performance.Contrast that with the intangible results of teaching. We oftenleave school wondering if we made any headway that day and questioningif a different approach might have made the message clearer. If we had“Eureka!” moments in every class, we might achieve the same instantgratification that much of the private sector has. But, we don’t. Maybeseveral years, or even a decade later a student contacts us to say thatwe made a difference. Teaching is like planting an apple orchard; youmust wait 25 years for the trees to finally mature and bear fruit.Psychologists claim that the longer the delay between action andresults, the more challenging the task. By this standard, teachingcertainly is the most demanding of jobs.Additionally, each teacher must perform many different roles eachday. In the corporate world, my role was clearly defined for me. Theorganization chart had a box with my name on it. I had a company car, aprivate parking space, and a paneled office to let other employees knowtheir place in relation to mine. There is no organization chart todescribe a classroom. Sometimes we are authority figures, but at othertimes we must take on the role of nurse, coach, custodian, lunchroommonitor, or mentor. We often must perform dissimilar roles to differentstudents at the same time. Each role is critical, for it may be the onekey that enables a student to achieve academic success or socialintegration.Clearly in our profession, what we say and do makes an incredibleimpact on a young person’s self image. In business, one may fire anemployee who isn’t performing, but we cannot fire a student who is notworking or is not motivated to succeed. If we are at our best, we maybe able to encourage, inspire, and lead. So, all of us must be at ourvery best every minute of each long and challenging day.But those intangible rewards outweigh the hassles. I am proud to bea teacher. And, about that career as a senior VP, I look back andmarvel at how easy it was.