No not that question! God no!
I’m a teacher at a charter school with some volatile staff turn over this year and I’m on pretty good terms with the CEO. I’m planning to ask for a September and October leave of absence.
Anyone have any suggestions as to how to pitch this?
Brett
Go in with a plan B, in other words be prepared to be unemployed when you return (find other job leads and possible employment before you leave). A sad story but, I personally know of a hiker who was promised her job when she finished the AT but was dismissed while hiking. It ruined her hike. Between that and her chronic foot pain, she left the trail. No job, no trail completion… it was sorry to see. As far as a pitch, go in with what the trail will give to you at it’s end, a new set of social skills, a grand determination to follow through with a commitment, a worldly knowledge, new friends from around the globe, a leaner healthy body and a positive attitude. Good luck and enjoy your hike. Peace, WB
WB
See if you can find a 45 rpm copy of Johnny Paychecks old hit, “Take This Job and Shove It” Works for me:)
Nimblefoot
What do you teach? Is there any way the trip can augment your teaching lessons? And be creative with the connection.
Math? - Mileage, cooking measurements, steps taken, calories burned, etc. Environment? - Weather patterns, elevation/temp differentials, humidity effects, etc. Literature? - Walden and the Thoreau-like experience of a solo hiker.
You get the idea. If you’ve done a long hike before, you know the fertile ground it provides for teaching moments. If you haven’t logged long miles before, ask for more ideas from those who have. We’ll be glad to share our thoughts.
Good Luck!
Matt
Brett, come on. Matt’s reply is right on: Get the classes involved in following trail journals and then have them follow yours. Make it worth everyone’s time: pictures of fauna, animals(including fellow hikers), have daily texting sessions with different classes, possibly meet some of the staff and students for couple days of ‘living the trail life’, have classes plan class work around your trek, write a book of your adventure (with monetary rites promised to the school, etc. You can do it. Good luck.
Ankle Express
As one who works with kids for a living, the best plan is one that involves creating a lesson plan. The strong point should be what the school and kids will get out of your absence. Focus on your desire to have more time to create a series of lesson plans with real world application. Several of those lesson plans could be geography, math, journal writing, and so forth. You could do interviews with other professionals that are on the trails or trail towns. Also, it could be a journey the students can take with you… an update they can follow. Have a send off and a reception. etc.
Trout
Or, you could try this method which was pretty close to what worked for me, even though i had the excuse that i wasn’t given a contract for the next year until April:
Research a suitable substitute, quietly. Have lesson plans all planned out and left in your office or file.
Let everyone know that you’re off to hike the PCT, what an amazing journey it will be, and that you think you can be done by the time school starts.
Keep an online journal. Write a few times about how important this trail is to you, and how you’re worried you’re not going to get done in time.
In early August, (IF you’re still hiking, which face it many have quit by then) call your boss and tell him/her that you’re a month (or more?) from being done, that it would kill you after having walked 2000 miles already to have to stop short. Let him/her know that you know of a great substitute.
I know this is a risk that has to be assessed. Will you get fired? But the likelihood is that the impressive nature of what you’re doing, already 3/4 done, will influence your boss more then than it would by asking him in advance.
ATeacher
These are all great suggestions.
Hiking the PCT rules. Even the potential of conveying that to future students puts you way ahead of the game in your profession; actually executing this lesson makes you extremely valuable to mankind.
Align yourself with those that understand this, or at least respect it, and you can live large for both yourself and future pupils.
Rock on down that trail. It is not an opportunity to be missed once seriously considered.
Hans Berg
Thanks for the great ideas! I’ll have to let you know how it goes. My meeting is after school tomorrow.
Brett
I worked at two part-time and one full-time job prior to leaving on my 07 PCT Thru. It was hard for my bosses to understand why I wanted to hike for so far and long and I think they took my notification as if I quit because I didn’t like my job, which wasn’t true. Most anyway you put it, when you quit a job, you make other employee’s jobs harder and it cost the company money to train your replacement or to retrain you when you get back. Who want’s to work with someone who makes your job more diffcult. This might make it more difficult to get that job back. I was in a different field than teaching and teaching is one of those fields that could benefit from the life-skills and experiences gained on the trail. I don’t want to burst anybody’s thru hiking dream “bubble” but I found that there more biased information than non-biased information on this website concerning leaving work and society to hike a trail. Thru-hiking is sometimes considered a selfish sport but sometimes you have to do what is best for yourself and take a risk. I hope you can make your hike, it will change your life for the better. Good Luck!:cheers
Spigot
Thanks Spigot for the different perspective.
As for how it went, well it didn’t yet. I was going to break the news because they were going to pay for me to go to some sort of conference that I was required to sign a terms for employment agreement (meaning if I quit I would have to pay for the conference). I looked into the conference and decided it wasn’t for me so I just declined going to that which took the pressure off.
My current plan is to lay low for a while then ask for my leave in May. My plan now is to follow ATeacher’s advice above and tell them about the hike, mention that I should be finished before school starts, but that I might need leave. Then sometime in Oregon I will call and tell them I have hiked through two states and need more time to finish.
Ultimately I’m confident that I can find work locally when I get back even if they don’t grant my leave. Plan B is to sign up for the county wide substitute pool so I can start the day I get back if needed.:pimp
Brett
Spigot raises a valid point. Quitting never makes your boss’ life easier. But trust me, after the shock wears off, they’ll be happy for you. Whether a boss says it or not, they wish they had the opportunity (or the stones) to drop out of the rat race and pursue a passion for a few months!
Matt