At first glance, a tall guy who looks like he can be in the NBA sits on a stool in the middle of English class with short, dark grey hair and wears calm outfits. Big shoes that look like he is wearing clown shoes. Victor Giordano, an English Teacher who works at West Leyden High School, shows how being a teacher isn’t all fun and games and how mental health can be handled.
As he speaks on situations he has faced with a focused look on his face, Giordano says, “I saw a girl one time she was beefing with another girl. She took her hand and punched a brick wall, and her knuckles were broken. I had to take her to the nurse, I saw one girl throw her computer across the room and break it.”
Being a teacher, you face a lot of students who go through rough times. Mr. G explains it well by saying, “One student, bless him, he’s a good guy. He just had a hard time. I think he was on a lot of meds. He had trouble, like being in a classroom, he couldn’t do it, and, God, I felt bad for him. He’s a really good guy, but he’s had a hard time, like sitting in his desk. He would have, random outbursts.”
Turning it around Mr Giordano says what made him pick being an English teacher and he walks around the room. ”But I felt like English was the only one that gets you to learn more about the things that, like, love, hate, all the just like the real, real shit. You know what I mean? I felt like it sucks because I don’t feel like I teach that anymore. I feel like we don’t get into those conversations I used to when I first started teaching. I feel that now it’s all about passing the test. Gotta do this, gotta do that.”
Teaching can be a struggle and Mr. Giordano expresses how it was starting his career and how it’s like being a teacher on a day to day basis. He says with a straight face, “And at the end of the day, you learn more by going, jumping in and doing it. And then, over time, you learn. No, I didn’t expect it. I thought It was going to be, I don’t know, you think you get into the job to help, and then you realize sometimes you’re actually hurting them.” “ Yeah, man. Like, there’s been times, even this year, last year, where I’m like, I don’t know if I want to do this. No more. I think especially when you see, a lot of the teachers around the country are leaving the profession.”
With a serious look on his face, he says how being a person can be hard. “Hardest thing I’ll try to be fast and brief, being open to people, being open to meeting people, being open to talking to people, not being defensive, not assuming the guy you’re gonna go talk to is gonna be an a*****”. Victor Giordano continues to speak about mental health and fixes his grey hairs, as he emphasizes: “ how to be happy. It’s not that it doesn’t come naturally. You have to. I always say the biggest enemy is between your two ears, and so you have to learn how to self care. You have to learn how to be happy. You have to learn how to talk to yourself in the right way, positive self talk.”
Going forward, Victor Giordano should be known as a multiple generational teacher. Despite not knowing what the future may hold, he always duck his head for flying laptops and he’ll continue to passionately teach until he is no longer able to teach.
