I ran down the halls of Summit High School, throwing a bouncy ball against the walls to my older sisters and then waiting for them to throw it back. This seemed to be one of the only things that could keep us from going crazy with boredom while our mom worked in her classroom. Looking back on those times, the teachers at Summit must have wanted to kill us for being so annoying.
My mom became a teacher before I was born. Some of my earliest memories were at the school she taught. I remember going to work with her when the building was completely empty as well as when it was full of crazy high schoolers. As a young child it was hard to stay entertained while she worked, so my siblings and I created many “games” to keep us busy and out of my mom’s hair. My favorite was when we took rolly chairs and raced each other, but that was a long time ago.
One bonus about having a teacher as a mom is that district employees get to choose what school their kids go to. For years my mom talked about me going to the same high school that she taught at. This made me very happy to think I would go to the school I spent so much of my childhood in. We had planned on me staying in the schools I was zoned for (Mansfield High School zoning) then when it came time for high school I would go to Summit. I was ok with that because some of my classmates would be going to Summit also.
When Legacy was built, my mom switched over and taught there. Which meant I would go there for high school instead of Summit or Mansfield. At that time, I was in Intermediate school and my Mom came up with the idea of sending me to Linda Jobe Middle School so I would know kids at my high school. I begged my mom to let me stay in the schools I was zoned for so I could go to Mansfield, but it was no use.
After middle school I started at Legacy, with my mom. At first it was weird seeing my mom and the teachers I grew up with. And it got even weirder when my mom became my AP World History teacher. It was also hard calling my mom Mrs. Long because I was so used to calling her mom. It was hard calling some of my other teachers by their last name because I was used to calling most of them by their first name.
Having my mom at school has made my school life so much better. Most of the teachers know me so I’m not scared to talk to them, Principals and teachers are nicer and let some things fly by and I can always go see my mom when I need food, medicine or money. There are also bad things that come with her being around, I have to follow all the rules because what I do “reflects” on her, teachers expect more from me and I have to stay at school longer than most students.
The biggest problem I have faced with my mom at school is all the negative things people say about her. Sometimes I think people forget Mrs. Long is my mom and they say, Tweet and Instagram whatever they feel about her. This obviously hurts my feeling when they say nasty or rude things. So when I see the mean tweets and Instagram posts it takes everything for me not to go and confront them about it. This has been a real obstacle for me because as a teacher she can’t say anything to these students and as her daughter I can’t do anything because it makes her look bad. So, I have to sit back and watch people insult my mom.
Even though I sometimes have to stay at school until 10:00 PM and be extra respectful to people, I am happy my mom made me go to the school she teaches at. Legacy, in my opinion, is the best high school in the district. I feel like I am more than Mrs. Long’s daughter. I feel like I am a daughter of most of the teachers. A lot of them treat me like I am their daughter and it’s really nice to have that many people to turn to when I need help. There are bad things that come with being a teacher’s daughter but I think there are more good things and I wouldn’t change anything.
