Factory worker to teacher: Imparting real life lessons
Stories of teachers leaving the classroom to work in an entirely different vocation are a dime a dozen these days. Less common are the stories of those who left a “regular job” to tackle teaching.
When she first got started in the classroom after years in a traditional workforce role, Pepperell High School’s Vicki Mayes quickly learned that being a teacher wasn’t exactly what she thought it was going to be like.
“Initially I thought I would just get to teach my content and interact with my kids,” Mayes said. “That was just part of it. Ninety percent of it is paperwork that amounts to nothing … And the people who tell teachers what to do have never been in a classroom or have been gone so long that they don’t remember what it is like.”
“A good teacher doesn’t need anything but a group of students,” she said. “Kids have not changed. First and foremost, they have not changed. They will do what you ask. They will conform to what you tell them to conform to. (The classroom) has become political. It’s not a place that should be political.”
To her students at Pepperell, Mayes is simply the sharp-witted, toughas-nails economics teacher pushing her students toward academic success. Most would never guess she arrived in the classroom after a varied job background and finding herself at a standstill after a far-reaching economic decision brought her employment to a grinding halt.
“I’ve been a bartender. I’ve worked at what used to be Zartic (food plant],” Mayes said. “I spent 13 years at the Arrow Shirt Company making shirts.”
Then President George H.W. Bush announced the North American Free Trade Agreement for the United States, Canada and Mexico, and Mayes’ work attaching collars to shirts at the Buchanan plant soon ended.
“I was already going to school at night at the time the plant closed,” she said. “I wanted to teach.”
Mayes really wanted to teach was horticulture. She had studied the subject throughout her own time in high school.
“But when you have four kids and a job you can’t just go to UGA,” Mayes said. “So, I studied history, which I also love.”
Mayes has a degree to teach social sciences — economics, government, history, psychology, etc.
She graduated from
college in 1994, the same year that her son graduated from high school. She has been teaching high school for 24 years. Mayes taught at Cedartown High School, which is the school from which she graduated, and she moved to Pepperell High School at the start of the 2014-15 academic year.
Teachers who started their adult lives working in a different field like herself bring a unique perspective to the classroom, she said.
“They know what the workforce is really like,” Mayes said. “They can tell their students this isn’t the way the real world works. They can understand more as a former blue collar worker. … I have a broader perspective. I can use anecdotal incidents in the classroom where other teachers cannot.”
For example, there is the lesson of how workers are not just paid by the hour, but also by the piece — something that many of these students’ former relatives who worked for the Lindale Mill understand. There is a minimum hourly rate, but workers are also paid by the number of “pieces” of work they produce. In Mayes’ case, it was how many collars she could attach to shirts in a day. On average, that number for her was 120 dozen.
“Even though technology has changed in industry, it’s still the same concept,” Mayes said.
With each passing school year, Mayes gets closer to retirement, but at age 60, she really hasn’t considered when she needs to step down.
“I know I’ll work next year,” she said. “If they
‘A good teacher doesn’t need anything but a group of students. Kids have not changed. First and foremost, they have not changed. They will do what you ask. They will conform to what you tell them to conform to. (The classroom) has become political. It’s not a place that should be political.’ Vicki Mayes Pepperell High School teacher
would just let me work, I don’t know how long I’d work. I still love teaching.”
Perhaps she could do more with her love of horticulture.
“I garden. My greatest passion is to garden,” she said. “I grow vegetables. I grow flowers. I have a greenhouse now. I have citrus plants and orchids. Planting and putting my hands in dirt is some of the most relaxing time … I’m happiest outside.”
But still, it would be hard to walk away completely. Part of her work that pleases her the most is building relationships with students. Mayes loves running into those who have sat in her classroom and staying in touch with them and is incredibly proud when they find their own success in life. And she loves teenagers.
“Most people hate teenagers,” Mayes said. “I like teenagers. It’s been a great job.”