Today is the day! My second memoir, Subject to Change, is officially released! It’s been a frustrating, surprising, and rewarding journey. I’m both older and wiser, and I couldn’t ask for anything more. The process of creating Subject to Change wasn’t unlike the adventure it describes: changing my career direction at age 55 to become a science teacher for pregnant and parenting teen girls.
I started Subject to Change in 2022, the year my first memoir was released. While Mother of My Invention was in production with my publisher, I started writing essays and scenes about the joys and mishaps of learning to become a teacher and genuinely care for my students—who then taught me profound lessons in being a good human. The experience changed my perspective on the learning process and affects the way I interact with other people even today.
One responsibility I take seriously as a memoir writer is the need to be honest with readers. Some of the incidents I describe in my book are embarrassing to me, but I think our best life lessons come from those moments. Don’t you agree?
Some of those events from my teaching career are difficult to share. Like the time I failed to fully preview an inappropriate video before presenting it to the class. Oops! When I recognized I was repeating methods of my worst teachers. Ugh! Or realized I’d let my personal biases affect my relationship with a student. This one hurt my heart.
There were incredible rewards, though. Like the time my one vote in a district evaluation committee made the difference in a special ed student’s ability to graduate. Or when a biology lesson on life cycles led to sharing the release of a lovely crop of Painted Lady butterflies in the playground with an even lovelier group of toddlers in our daycare.
Aside from forming relationships with some incredible colleagues and students, the best thing about my years in the classroom was the lessons I learned from my students that are useful to me today. Here are just a few examples:
- Never underestimate a student’s abilities
- Failure is an excellent teacher
- Don’t assume what you know about someone is all there is to know
- Meeting students where they are promotes trust
- You don’t have the right to decide what success looks like for anyone but yourself
- Humility and empathy are a teacher’s most powerful assets.
All of these lessons can be generalized to apply in our relationships with others. They might also seem self-evident, but every one is associated with a specific incident that resulted in growth and change for me. I’m deeply indebted to the students and staff of the Margaret Hudson Program in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma who challenged me to become a better teacher and a better person.
If you’d like to read about my teaching adventures in Subject to Change: Teaching and Learning from Teen Moms, the book is now available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop, or your preferred online bookseller. If you purchase a copy, I’d really appreciate a review.
Janice Airhart 