I first thought about becoming an early childhood teacher almost exactly 30 years ago. My first inspiration came from my honorary aunt Terri who was my preschool/kindergarten teacher back in the mid-1970s. As she watched me grow over the years she began to tell me how I had a gift with young children and should think about becoming an early childhood teacher. At first, I thought this was a bit weird as I thought men did not do this for a “real” job.

As much as I had always felt that yes, my calling in life was to help people in some form, I thought it would come in the shape of a career as a police officer instead. In fact, I really had my heart set on becoming a police detective of some sort. Yet, when I spoke with many of my friends who were both teachers and police officers I began to feel that working with young children would bring a lot more work satisfaction than dealing with criminals. But as I am now a veteran teacher with more than 23 years of experience it is interesting how on many occasions whilst working with young children I must play the police officer also. This being that I am constantly looking for perpetrators, chasing up leads, interviewing suspects, listening to informants, gathering evidence, offering plea bargains, taking down kingpins, dishing out punishment, enforcing the law and generally trying to keep the schoolyards safe. In fact, one of my nicknames at school is the “classroom cop.”

Perhaps as far as career opportunities go I have the best of both worlds!