Today, teachers deliver lessons, grade papers and manage classrooms. Long before this, however, they were teenagers and young adults navigating their first jobs, ranging from washing dishes in the back of a restaurant to teaching at a university.
For many teachers, their first jobs looked much like those of regular teenagers. Social studies teacher Timothy Anderson delivered newspapers for a small local paper at the age of 14. “It got me up in the morning. It forced me to interact with neighbors as I had to collect subscription costs weekly. It helped to learn better communication skills,” Anderson said.
Another seemingly generic first job was that of social studies teacher Matthew Winter, who began working as a dishwasher and was later promoted to a busboy. At 13 years old, Winter didn’t even have a work permit, but his friend, a year older, was determined to find work. “I hadn’t intended to apply for a job, but my friend Mark Viqueira was a year older and decided we should get jobs. We rode our bikes to downtown Bethesda and walked around asking businesses if they were hiring,” Winter said.
Not all first jobs were typical teenage work, though. English teacher Lindsey Vance entered the working world as a 15-year-old paid intern who spent hours each weekend writing up classifieds at the Northwest Current Newspaper in Washington, D.C.. “After almost two months of writing up classifieds, I was allowed to write my first article, which was published in the paper,” Vance said.
Chemistry teacher Mei Wang’s first job was teaching general chemistry at Temple University as a graduate student. This role was the beginning of her teaching tenure, which continues to this day. “It provided me with valuable experience and training as an instructor. I learned how to share my knowledge of chemistry effectively with students and discovered better ways to engage them in learning,” Wang said.
English teacher Zachary Lowe began as a guitar instructor, working at a store in Olney called Wood ‘n’ Strings Music. Starting his job at 14 years old, he taught younger kids chords and how to read tablature. “I really enjoyed the job. I think even back then I had a sense of wanting to teach in some way, and so it was a great introduction to the student-teacher relationship,” Lowe said.
Growing up on a farm, chemistry and AP Research teacher Brett Bentley began working at the age of 10. He worked from sunup to sundown for weeks every summer with his brothers and cousins. “I would not trade the work ethic and life experiences I had working with my brothers and cousins for anything, but it was hard at times… Would I have liked to have a lazy summer? Sure, but that wasn’t the life I had, and I had my family working hard together in a way I wouldn’t have in other circumstances,” Bentley said.
From paper routes to music lessons, farms and classrooms, teachers’ first jobs display how diverse the start to a career can be.
