Choices

Retirement or Work

 Everyone seeks happiness and people follows different ones to reach that goal. What road to follow is especially an important question for teachers. They have invested many years in their education and have a lot of experience dealing with people.

Retirement

 When the time comes, retirement is appealing to many. A retiree does not have to wake up at a certain time in the morning. He has a great freedom to organize his schedule for the day. His life is self-center for he is responsible only to himself. This allows him great freedom to socialize with other retirees. Finally, he has a lot of time to work on his own projects. With all these incentives, many teachers chose retirement. Those who do so, may still have a productive life. Rene Roser, a teacher in Canajoharie falls in that category. He retired in 1990 and died in 2020. He had a full life by being involved in various activities. (See his obituary). https://houghtalingandsmith.com/tribute/details/4590/Rene-Roser/obituary.html

Work

Other decides not to retire and follows a different road. They have a different conception of what to do when they leave teaching. When a person stopped working, the money he receives every month is not for his present status in the world. It is for his past achievement. However, if a person still works, he interacts with the world. Someone in the world recognizes that his time is still worth something.

The second reason that working has value may be expressed in different ways. The Bible, a most important book, is the recording of Man’s experience through the Ages. One of these experiences is the parable of talents. (Matthew 25:14-30). If a person has received more talents, he must produce more. To keep on working instead of retiring is one way to produce more.

Another way to express the same thing, is to recognize that this country is good for its citizens. It provides them with an education and means to earn a good living. If a person receives more than most people, he should give back more than most people. Stopping working and going into retirement deprive some citizens of the benefits of the experience that a teacher could share with them. One of the benefits that teachers could give to those who are not so fortunate, is to read a few hours a week at a public library to those students who really need that help.

Conclusion

There is a deeper reason why a person should go on working. Work keeps your mind and body functioning well. Every day brings new circumstances that must be dealt with. This ensures that your mind is functioning-well. When your mind is divorced from the world, that is reality, there is no interaction with the world. Its functioning is through pattern of thoughts rather than thinking. Instead of getting older every day, old age has finally caught up with that person. In conclusion, an active life, and working is one way to have one, provides a better opportunity to have a happy life.