[BONUS] I Took a Teaching Job in Deerchase. The Locals Warned Me to Leave Before Dark

Dr. NoSleep· Host0:00

Dr. No Sleep.

Speaker 10:01

I became a teacher because I wanted to save the world one kid at a time. I know it sounds naive, but I believed it was possible because it happened to me. I grew up in a rough inner city neighborhood with parents who were barely around. It was my teacher, Mr. Masefield, who listened when I needed to talk, helped me get a scholarship to college, and even intervened on my behalf when I got in trouble with the law. He had been there for me, and now I wanted to be there for someone else. As soon as I got my teaching degree, I applied for a program that matched educators with schools in need. During the tense months I spent waiting for a placement, I imagined that I would be working in a school like the one I had graduated from. I figured my students would be like me, city kids with city problems, and a lifestyle that I was familiar with. When my letter finally arrived, I discovered I had been assigned to a tiny Appalachian town called Deer Chase. Its population was less than three hundred, and according to the organization, most of my students would be bused in from nearby regions that were even more remote. I had never lived anywhere without public transportation, without twenty-four hour shops, without background noise and light pollution. I had received a letter along with my posting, one in which my future principal explained just how isolated Deer Chase really was. It was an hour to the nearest gas station,