On Being a Mom
Categories: Léo’s Insights 2024-2025
Even though I had an advanced education in Biology, most of my teaching career was comprised of teaching French. I suppose this had something to do with me being bilingual because this was also around the time Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau declared Canada a bilingual country so every school was scrambling to make students speak both official languages.
It took years before I finally orchestrated my way out of teaching French and was finally able to teach what I really loved. But even then, I had to teach one of those “nothing” courses designed to help non-academic students collect enough credits to graduate. Science 24 was such a class.
There is very little to accomplish in these “nothing” classes other than encouraging attendance and making at least a nominal effort to help students succeed. In this particular class, I had a nineteen-year-old lady, who was always in class on time, sat at the front and did reasonably well on her assignments. Being quite a bit older than the rest of the class, she had a more mature demeanour. I enjoyed having talks with her, even if she was a bit reserved and slow to offer information.
When I asked her what she planned to do after getting her diploma, she refused to tell me. I found it rather strange that she would refuse to talk about this but I let it go and just lightly brought it up every now and again. Finally, she blurted out that she did not want me laughing at her career choice. I assured her that was definitely not part of my job description.
As I kept pestering her, she eventually saw I was genuinely interested in her future. After making me promise I would not laugh, she shared her future ambitions.
She was soon to be married. Her career aspirations were to be a wife, mother and home-maker. What broke my heart was that she was obviously not getting support in her choice from her peers and maybe not even from her family. But she sure got a lot of support and encouragement from me! What a pity that this young lady’s career choice was ever a laughing matter. In my opinion, wife-mother-homemaker is the highest calling for any woman and I told my student that. She was surprised by my enthusiastic support of her noble career choice. Remember, this was over twenty-five years ago. What would happen today? Encourage your young ladies to aspire to the highest calling on earth: Wife and Mother.
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