Ninth Time's A Charm?

I love the movie, "Sound of Music". The main character Maria longed to live in the abbey but it turns out that the quiet life of a nun doesn't fit her vibrant personality. Mother Superior asks her to leave the convent to become a governess to seven children. As Maria gets on a bus with all of her belongings, she says, "When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window." After almost 10 years of teaching American Sign Language, I've often wondered if I was meant for this job.

When I was offered a job to teach ASL in 2002, I needed to take more classes so that I could go on and teach the other levels adeptly. When I went to college, I majored in liberal studies to teach elementary school students. I took some ASL classes because I was really interested in learning the language. Never in my wildest dreams would I be teaching high school, let alone ASL!

When you teach, you need a credential which is a year program through a university along with student teaching. When I started teaching ASL, a credential for ASL didn't exist and no one (the teaching commission or the district) knew what to do with us teachers. Some teachers had credentials in other subjects and were able to get an authorization to teach ASL because they took ASL in college. For me, I didn't have a credential and was stuck in a unique predicament-how could I continue to teach ASL and which credential did I need? So, for three years, my school district applied for one-year waivers until a credential was created for ASL.

Finally, in November 2005, the teacher entrance test for ASL was first administered. Once you passed this test, you can enter a credential program. The first time I took it, I passed one of the three subtests. The second time, I passed another subtest. I had one more subtest to pass and I was good to go. The hardest part about this test was that there was nothing to study other than the Mississippi River of a list of sources the test creators used to make the test. Additionally, this subject test was only offered twice a year while the other subject tests were offered three or four times each year.

By 2009, I still couldn't pass Subtest III. This test was NOT representative of a teacher entrance exam, rather it would probably suffice for a doctorate program. The test also contained some flaws. Most teachers that took the test attested to the fact that the signers signed at lightning speed, the angles were atrocious on the video, and some of the scoring on the test was subjective. After much research on my part, there was only a 27% passing rate. You would think that after a letter to the governor, state superintendent, state representative, California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, Pearson (testing company), the owner of Pearson and teacher representative of the district, someone would be able to come to my aid. However, everyone washed their hands of the situation and refused to make the appropriate changes to the test.

At the end of every school year (except one year), I was given a pink slip because of the budget crisis. While my principals loved having me at their school, re-hiring was difficult because I wasn't fully credentialed due to the subtest that I couldn't pass. I started to wonder if teaching in this subject was where God wanted me. Was this open door just leading to an elevator shaft?

I love what I do, but maybe it wasn't God's will for me to continue in this subject or did He just want me to persevere in facing this trial? Each time I received my failed test results in the mail, I couldn't help but think as I read the results through tears that maybe God wanted to get me out of this subject. I really wanted to pass that test and I was hoping that the Commission would improve it so that teachers could pass it. However, the Commission never changed it and after December 2010, I gave up on passing it.

In the winter of 2010, I decided to get my credential in a different subject, apply for an authorization to teach ASL just like those other teachers did in 2002 when a credential for ASL didn't exist. I had to not only study a different subject, I had to take additional classes, do more work, pay more money and take a different test.

I was going to use the words, "Fast Forward", but now that we're in the DVD/CD age, it is more apropos to say, "Skip" to this week in 2011. Something unthinkable happened to me four days ago: The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing recognized me as an official American Sign Language teacher. I was so excited when I found out the news and felt relieved. For the first time in almost ten years, I will be tenured. Like Pinocchio, I was finally real-not a boy but a real teacher! I felt like doing a jig and singing:
I’ve got no strings
To hold me down
To make me fret
Or make me frown
I had strings
But now I’m free
There are no strings on me
I just can't believe that I can finally end this chapter in my life.

Looking back, I experienced many sleepless nights, paid close to $1000. for testing and re-testing, $1500. for the extra credential classes, spent countless hours doing research on the computer, made multiple phone calls to different authorities in the State, wrote letters, took the test nine times, taught with a lower salary than most because I couldn't earn what a credentialed teacher earned and spent precious time doing what I could to keep my job. I was able to handle this better than the roller coaster of emotions I felt throughout the years as I taught.

I fought discouragement, discontentment, tears, anger and my confidence in my abilities was almost nil. I questioned God and sometimes, I questioned the point of salvation because I wondered if it was really necessary to follow Him. However, when I submitted myself to the authority of His will, I was able to truly trust Him in EVERY situation. I realized that God wasn't abandoning me, He was providing my every need. As the years went by, I wasn't devastated by the outcome because God had proved to me that He was going to take care of things in His own way. I finally got it in my thick skull that God's hand was and is intricately involved in EVERY aspect of this career and in my life.

Whatever happens in my life is a result of Him sovereignly ordaining it and my response should be one that is pleasing to Him. Although my credential woes are over, I know that God will bring other trials into my life. I admit, I'm a little bit nervous because trials are neither fun nor easy. But God, right? With Him, I CAN face those trials no matter how debilitating because Christ was able to endure the Cross. Jesus entrusted himself to the Father and God was with Him through it all. I have the same hope that no matter what, God too will be with me through it all.

I know that going through trials is never fun and it certainly tests your trust in Him. However, if it weren't for my trials, I would never be able to trust and know that God could solve them. Even though there was a lot of time used, exorbitant amounts of money spent and many tears in the last ten years, I am thankful for God displaying some of His wonderful attributes-His creative ways, love, compassion and His sovereignty have become real to me. Don't tell me God is good when the circumstances are good, He is good all of the time!

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it-I Corinthians 10:13

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will-Proverbs 21:1

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you-Isaiah 43:2

It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed-Deuteronomy 31:8

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him-James 1:12

But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips-Job 2:10

I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things-Isaiah 45:7