Joyce Norene

I think my inheritance from my grandparents and my parents. Believe it or not, in the depression days, my grandfather had a master's degree and was an instructor. My maternal grandmother was a principal, a college graduate, which was very rare for women at that time. My mother was a PhD and taught for Indiana University, and my dad was a seminary graduate. He was a Baptist minister. So it's all over the family. With my degrees, my older brother had 5 degrees - we just learned to set goals and achieve, and that's what we did. We made the A's in school. My parents were at school. It was from the get-go that what God has given you, you need to use well. And I still am doing that.

To slow down a little bit in my thinking, because not everybody's as bright as I am. I got that my second year of teaching. The lady pulled me aside and said, I see one problem with your teaching. She said, you're so bright, you pick it up so quick, and you expect everybody else to do it, and they can't. So it forced me to realize that I'm not real bright in every place, and that really has come home many a time to me. For instance, my husband builds computers - I could care less about it. If I have a problem, I just call his name. I'm not extremely mathematical. I don't think God gives us all of the gifts. So when you get a bunch of us together who are really good at different things, you've got quite a team.

Know that you're going to have to make some personal sacrifices. It's very difficult to balance family life and professional life. But I would advise you to marry someone who cares about your field. It makes it very difficult when they don't. My dissertation was on why women have dropped out in less than 5 years - I interviewed 10 women. And when a husband says you have to move 40 miles from your school and do not talk about school when you come home, that's your job - teaching is a full-time calling. You don't forget them. You're thinking about lesson plans, you're interviewing people, you're talking to parents all the time. And if you don't want to be totally immersed in it, don't go into it. It's a hard profession. To sugarcoat it would not be true, but the rewards are so tremendous. I mean, I still hear from students I had when they were 15, and they're in their 40s now with 2 and 3 children. Those kind of things, some people never get at all their whole lives. It's a calling. It's not a job. It's something that you have such a passion for, and it's contagious.

Right now we're losing a lot of teachers. I just noticed that one of our professional basketball players is 22 and he's going to be offered a $615 million contract with the NBA for the Spurs. I think in a lot of our societies today, we want to be entertained. Please don't make me think. Please don't make me struggle a little bit. Just let me laugh and talk. My theory is that we need to keep these good young people in teaching, and they're not going to be coming in for the money. They can't. But the sports and entertainment will always be there, but we're promoting the children's lives. We're with them more than their parents. So we need to keep our nose clean and be examples for them, particularly if they haven't had it set for them.

I'm a Christian person, number one. I believe in the Golden Rule of do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I believe in helping people set goals, if they want me to. I don't believe in preaching, I just think I walk the walk and talk the talk. I was divorced and raised 3 children by myself before I remarried. I tell my students that by my example, you can see that it can be done. I had them sing this song by the late John Denver of Higher Ground the first night of class, and I want them to look at the lyrics to see that there are people who settle for less in life than what they should. I go to every college graduation. I believed in being extremely involved in the school - I went to 28 proms and football games and all of those kind of things. That's been my modus operandi for a long time - I'm going to be involved with you if I'm going to work with you. And hopefully that inspires you to get moving.