A change of pace and perspective

No matter what kind of day or week I was having professionally, personally or otherwise, I always found that oasis and solace in the classroom with my students. There were countless times my interactions in class allowed me not only an escape, but another perspective on the world and in my own personal life, illuminating things in a different light when leaving campus. That is not to say that middle school students didn’t drive me crazy at times, but, even as an adult, my middle school inner child always helped me relate to the students and the different challenges I faced. It was also the sheer honesty and indifference of the middle school kids that I always found both endearing and infuriating all at the same time. If they didn’t like your haircut, they would tell you. If they thought that the new shoes you bought were goofy, they would tell you. If they were bored, oh, they would tell you! Thankfully, the majority of those times I was just able to laugh along with the students and enjoy being present in that moment guided by the middle school inner child in me.

During college, I was told the average career lifespan of the middle school music teacher was seven years before burnout took over and the teacher would leave the position. I was able to last 26 years with five years of teaching pullout music at the elementary schools. It was the right job that brought the enjoyment, challenges and fulfillment that I truly feel blessed to have experienced.

During my first 15-20 years of teaching, the concept of political ideology, along with social and institutional platforms, did not play a prevalent role in education, including the curriculum, administration and elected school boards, both locally and around the country. Within the past 15 years that has all changed and it seems as though public education has become a platform for highly partisan issues. Throughout the Peninsula and greater Bay Area we have not seen these ideological movements take hold as much as throughout our state and nation as experienced by the tumultuous school board races, library book bans, curriculum overhauls and even movements against the diversity of our student body and culture. We are in somewhat of a bubble in the Bay Area. What was once mostly a nonpartisan institution that supported student learning, including science, accurate historical views and diverse support for students, has now become very much a partisan platform for particular political ideologies.

The introduction of social media and, more recently, AI, has, and will, continue to alter our educational curriculum and learning environment. It is imperative that all educational institutions prepare our students for an inevitable future dominated by AI.

Our collective society must support educators with better pay, working conditions and classroom needs. You can take away the school, the classroom, the books and other learning materials. But if you have a teacher and their students out in a field with nothing else, the teaching and learning will continue. Always support our teachers first!

On my last day as I left school and then the district office, I was stepping away from my remaining physical connection, and identity as an educator to the district. I didn’t feel as though I was needing to step away, and also didn’t feel I was needing to step into my retirement. The need was not there, but the timing of it felt right, along with these last 36 years.

Tim Hilborn is a former educator in the San Mateo-Foster City School District.