I Am the Lucky One

(Editor’s Note: The following column was submitted by Rob Andrews, Related Vocational Instruction [RVI] teacher at Jasper County High School to share with our readers.)
By ROB ANDREWS
I am the lucky one. I am the one with the best job of anyone on the staff at Jasper County High School.

We often hear students identify the teachers who inspire them. During the final week of April, it was the students who inspired me. It was they who reminded me that mine is not a job, it is a calling.

Thank God for RVI (Related Vocational Instruction) and thank God I am a part of it.
On Saturday afternoon, April 30, as I was driving home from Jekyll Island, I was filled with a feeling of complete satisfaction. You know the feeling—the one you have when you pull your head from the trough at Ryan’s or the one you have when your paycheck is a couple of hundred more than you were expecting.

I was reminded that with the 600 plus students with whom I had spent the better part of four days, the future was not so bleak after all. I had just left a group of teenagers who could fix my car, fix me, take care of my child, cater my next banquet, draw a blueprint for and then build me a house.

But more than this, sitting in the auditorium during the conference’s award night, was the talent to support the service economy of a small town. There were the welders, plumbers, carpenters, computer geeks, auto mechanics, food service folks, gardeners, etc., who, if plopped down into a vacant town the size of Monticello, could probably have that town function at some level of efficiency.

The interesting thing about all of this is, each one of those students, many who are younger than some shirts I own, is a student with a disability —part of someone’s special education program. Those “get ‘er done” students represent over 600 IEP’s (individual education plans).

For four days, I witnessed hundreds of students who had obviously toiled arduously in the weeks and months prior to the year’s culminating event—the RVI State Conference and Competition.
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Among the dozens of competitive areas, there were welding projects, carpentry projects, child care projects, public speaking demonstrations, skills demonstrations, collision repair projects, and technology projects, all completed with burning intensity. A casual conversation with the participants quickly revealed a competitive spirit as powerful as that of Lance Arm-strong or any Olympian.

Students were also very resourceful in their attempts to replace the occasional forgotten tie or belt which was required for competition.

I saw a student with a speech impediment who accepted the challenge of region representative where giving speeches to large groups is part of the job. Even though pronunciation of each word requires a conscious effort on her part, she accepted the responsibility and spoke with confidence to a group of 850 people.

At no time over a four day period did I have to suffer an indignity or rude comment from a student. On the contrary, I relished the politeness and courteousness of students on a regular basis. “Please,” “thank you,” “yes sir,” “no sir” were the norm. When curfew arrived, all students were quiet and in their rooms.

For the students who “placed” in the dozens of competitions at this state level event, there was obviousness happiness. However, I did not witness any winner “rub it in” the face of the other contestants. For some, you knew the victory was sweet because this was the first time in their lives they had been recognized in front of a large group. For a few, I thought this may be the only time in their lives where they would be recognized for an accomplishment.

Those who did not place took it in stride, retained their composure, congratulated those who did place, and many times began planning right there their attack to win in ’07. At no time did I hear any accusations of cheating or inequities in the judging process.

For my students, as I wished them a safe trip back home just prior to their departure, I realized they had been scheming. Some of them stood up in the bus and began laying out their plan for winning more trophies in ’07.

There were pledges to begin projects early in the hopes of achieving perfection and a first place state trophy. There were suggestions for fundraisers so that more students from our school could compete and more money could be raised in order to improve our competitiveness with mega schools which have mega budgets.

All high school teachers at some time in their careers and parents of RVI students should attend at least one RVI State Conference and Competition either as a judge or chaperone. The memories would last a lifetime.