Teacher considers work 'paying it forward'

Editor’s note: This is one in a series profiling local educators each week.

A career in teaching is the ultimate method of “paying it forward” for Clovis High School pre-advanced placement world history teacher Drew Hatley.

Because he was molded by teachers throughout the Clovis Municipal Schools system, Hatley felt it was natural to return to his roots after graduating from Eastern New Mexico University.

“There’s been a lot of teachers and educators and coaches that have made a profound influence and effect in my life, giving me the opportunities that I’ve been so lucky to have as a young adult, so I’m very thankful for those people,” he said. “I also want to give back to our community. I bleed purple as much as anybody you’ll meet and love the kids in Clovis, love the people in Clovis, and just feel like I have a responsibility to give back to those people.”

Hatley has taught at CHS for 10 years, and also coaches football and track.

What has teaching taught you about yourself?

Teaching, as much as anything, teaches you patience, I think, and also the fact that kids need mentors and need adults that they can look to, to set them a good example. I try to do that on a day-to-day basis.

You have to be a very unselfish person to be a teacher, because you have to give a lot of your time and effort to 150 kids on a day-to-day basis. You’ve got to be a giving person, and that’s probably taught me, as much as anything else, to put my ego aside and my selfishness aside, and give back to the kids and try to do right by the kids.

What is your favorite memory of teaching?

Not any specific memory that stands out, but the day-to-day interaction with all different types of kids. One of the neat things about Clovis is we deal with kids from every aspect of life, whether it be different socio-economic situations, dealing with one parent-only kids — I get to meet all different kids, and I enjoy that as much about teaching as anything else. I often say that I teach kids, I don’t teach content or subject, so that’s kind of the way I try to base my teaching. The subject will take care of itself.

The day-to-day interactions with kids is probably the best thing I have in my life — getting to live in a community that you get to see these kids grow up and develop and give back to their community. The best memories are seeing the kids come back and thank you for the things you did for them.

What were your expectations when you began teaching, and how did the job differ from them?

I guess I thought the expectations would be very minimal, if that makes sense. Teaching’s changed a lot in 10 years, and a lot of that’s changed because we need to offer kids a little bit more of a service. Sometimes we have to be mom, dad, counselor, encourager, disciplinarian — we have a lot of responsibilities and wear a lot of jackets as a teacher. The expectations now are those; to wear all those different jackets, and be there for kids of all different types.

That’s what makes it unique and fun, is you get the opportunity to make those impacts with those kids, and be the mentor, and be the example that we hope to set for those kids. The expectations will continue to grow on educators and teachers, and this community’s got fantastic leadership from the top down. We’ve got fantastic kids.

What would you say has been the most rewarding aspect of teaching?

The most rewarding is watching some of these kids grow up, and get families already, and go to college, and graduate from college, and send the letters and the emails and the text messages, that at some point in their life, you made an impact that helped them later on down the road.

A lot of times, it’s not a subject matter thing,. It’s the relationship you built with the kid. It’s something that you said one day that you didn’t think would stick, that stuck with the kid. Just watching these kids grow and develop into citizens that give back to their community — that’s probably the most rewarding aspect.

That’s probably the biggest reason I got involved in education, was for those rewarding moments. A lot of jobs don’t give back to you like teaching does, and give you that feeling of accomplishment as you watch kids grow and develop and turn into mothers and husbands and those types of things.

— Compiled by Staff Writer Eamon Scarbrough