Bowman

  After I moved back to South Carolina from Texas, I got a provisional teaching license for high schools.  Unfortunately, I got it in April and expired in June, so it wasn't worth it.  I also was licensed for a year in North Carolina, but I didn't want to move.  I did find a private school that was looking for a Speech teacher.  It was in Bowman, SC and was called Bowman Academy.

 I knew about Bowman, because a good friend from college was from there.  Talula had told me all about her hometown and the cows that were on the street signs.  It was a small town in Orangeburg County, and around an hour from Columbia.  I made an appointment to go to see the school and talk to the principal.  When I got there, I found a two-story wooden structure that looked pretty old.  All of the windows were open, and they had big fans creating circulating air inside the building.  The doors of the classrooms were opened to create a kind of coolness.  No air conditioning.  I asked the principal what they did in the winter to keep warm, and he said they used space heaters.  Strike one.

 The principal seemed interested in me and my qualifications.  I didn't need a state teaching license, since this was a private school.  They had grades kindergarten through 12th grade in this one building.  Strike two.  But, I continued to seem interested.  Then came Strike three.  The principal informed me that I would have to live in Bowman, or at least Orangeburg County.  Why?  Because the teachers would have to be on call for the students, if they needed help in a project or counseling.  I really didn't think that a Speech teacher was as needy as a Science teacher.  As it turned out, the principal lived in Summerville, SC which was in Dorchester County which was a 45-minute drive to Bowman.  I probably shouldn't have said anything, but I asked him how he could live about the same distance from Bowman as I did.  He said he had an Assistant Principal who lived closer that he did.  I thought if a school was going to have that rule, everyone should follow it.  I declined their offer.

 I also heard about a drug counselor position that was open at South Carolina State University.  I had courses in counseling in seminary, and I was quite familiar with drugs.  They didn't hire me.  Probably because I might ask the students where I could find good drugs.  During the interview, they asked me if I had ever done drugs.  I was honest and said yes.  Strikes one, two AND three.