Once upon a time an exclusive private college preparatory school was founded in Tucson, Arizona. It was called Greenfields Country Day School. It has a very small enrollment, so the student-teacher ratio is low.
During the academic year of 2006-2007, its teacher of physics & chemistry decided to retire after many years at the school. Greenfields then advertised for his position, hoping to find a suitable replacement. This is when I applied for said job.
As a retired college professor who also writes books, this job seemed like a good chance to share my talents and earn some extra money. After all, we had planned to move to Tucson over the summer of 2007 so as to be closer to our kids and grandkids.
In March 2007, I was invited to come for an interview - at my own expense. So, believing that the administration of Greenfields was acting in good faith, I booked a flight from Fort Lauderdale, my home at the time, and flew to Tucson. I reasoned that even if things didn't work out, I could visit my daughters and granddaughters who lived in Tucson.
During my telephone interview, it sounded to me as if I were “the answer to their prayers.” This was only bolstered by my VIP red-carpet treatment during my long, on-site interview. I was introduced to “everyone” by first name, and in the introduction, the Headmaster let “everyone” - including students that were on campus - know that I would be the one to replace the retiring teacher. It sure seemed to me as if I were the greatest thing to hit campus since the invention of sliced bread. I was continually told that I was “perfect” for the job, and “exactly” what they needed. I returned to Florida fairly confident that I would be offered the job.
The upside of the job is that I didn't need a job, but liked teaching physics and chemistry. Greenfields was also a well-endowed school with lots of “toys” to use in teaching.
While I was semi-retired and willing to do new things and even work for lower wages, the downside of the job was that at this school, I was going to be offered a salary some $6000 less annually than my teaching job at the urban Catholic High School that I was teaching at in 2006-2007. And that was low anyway. No matter.
About a week later, the headmaster left me a voicemail message saying that they had found a person that “more closely fit” what they needed, so, thanks but no thanks.
On June 2 of this year, I noticed that there was an opening for a teacher of physics & chemistry at Greenfields. Gee, I guess that the person who “more closely fit” the job this past year wasn't a very good fit after all. Sometimes you get what you pay for.
