Ben Talley | Education Beat
“While you’re restin’, come over here a minute.”
As a child, I knew I was in for a load of work whenever I heard those words associated with my name.
Neither my mother nor my father was afraid of work. It seemed that both were always busy at something worthwhile and meaningful. (Their generation is referred to by some as the “greatest” — for more than one reason.)
I could scarcely walk before I had daily chores. And I commenced working for my own spending money at age 9, happily mowing grass, raking leaves, and shoveling snow off driveways at $2-$3 a pop for neighbors.
Yet at the time, little of it seemed like work to me. So much was the fun that my parents taught me to have with any work I did under the sun.
Nowadays, the definition of “work” is changing and evolving quickly. The pandemic sent many to work from home for over a year. Now many have found they want to stay there, if possible.
Indeed, millions there are who have now found a new way to work. For instance, my son once met all his clients face-to-face, at his office. Now quite a few of his meetings are conducted by Zoom online. It is more convenient and less time consuming for many people. Some days he can be found sitting in his golfing shorts (while dressed professionally from the waist up), helping people with their investments and retirement while his dogs wander around in the background (something apparently all people love to see).
As I look around Bristol, jobs are available virtually everywhere. But they are far from all being filled.
Yes, many are reluctant to return to work for fear of still catching the virus.
Others have simply found new work-from-home jobs.
Still others, especially moms, have been unable to return to the work force because they must stay at home and care for their children. (Which reminds me; the sooner we all receive our COVID vaccinations, the sooner we can safely reopen all our schools, which in turn will allow many to return to work.)
A friend asked me last week. “Ben, if you got paid enough in unemployment money for staying at home, enough to “make a living” for your family, would you go back to work?”
My answer was quick and unequivocal. “Yes, I would.”
The reason for my answer goes back to who raised me. I was taught that work was an honorable thing. A patriotic thing. A privilege, even. Not something I “had” to do just to “make a living.”
My friend then said to me, “But, Ben, you are retired. You don’t work anymore.”
To which I kindly replied, “Follow me around tomorrow and watch what all I do these days. I may do more work now than when I was getting a regular paycheck.”
Yes, “volunteer” work (the type I like to do so much of, for which I don’t personally make money) counts as work. In fact, I am convinced that if every able-bodied American did just two-three hours of volunteer work each week, we would be able to guide people up from poverty with more certain precision and with far less money than any social program ever devised.
I have a friend old enough to be my father who still works a few hours every day, at a $10-an-hour job. This friend is immensely and independently wealthy. “I like feeling useful,” he says.
My friends, if you are of able mind and body, then count it a privilege and an honor to be able to work.
The value of work is to be measured by far more than money alone.
Work is honorable. Work is meaningful. Work is patriotic.
For as long as I am blessed with an able mind and body, I will never fully “retire.”
Yes, I know. I know. I had an immensely strong work ethic instilled within me as a child.
Let us seek to revive such value within our society. By living it. All of us.
Ben Talley is a member of the National Teachers Hall of Fame, a former Virginia Teacher of the Year, and a McGlothlin Award Winner for Teaching Excellence.
May 16, 2021 at 03:00PM
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EDUCATION BEAT: The value of work - Bristol Herald Courier
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