&uot;Teaching’s like a ticket,&uot; says Brett Damerow.

Monday, January 14, 2002

&uot;Teaching’s like a ticket,&uot; says Brett Damerow. &uot;You can go anywhere you want with it.&uot;

The 1996 Albert Lea High School graduate’s &uot;ticket&uot; has taken him to an Alaskan village, where he began teaching in mid-August.

Damerow heard about the teaching opportunity from his advisor at Augustana College, as well as a fellow student, who is teaching in the same district.

The village of about 450 people is about 12 miles south of Bethel, a hub town on the Kuskokwim River.

&uot;The village school is closer to the old country school,&uot; Damerow said, adding there are 14 staff members for the approximately 130 Native American students in grades kindergarten through 12.

He teaches junior and senior high math and science, and has 14 students in his largest class, he said.

In contrast, when substitute teaching in a large school in Sioux Falls, S.D., last year, Damerow had 130 students in a class.

It’s a job Damerow loves. &uot;Getting totally immersed in the culture is a bonus,&uot; he said. &uot;It’s the best thing I can take out of there.&uot;

He said the villagers live a good life -&160;very simple. &uot;The village I’m in is great. I haven’t seen any racism there, and there are families who take me out hunting and fishing.&uot;

Half of the teachers are natives, he said, and turnover among young teachers at the school is a problem.

Damerow said he’d like to stay at least another year.

&uot;Most of the teachers in the district are in their first or second year of teaching,&uot; he said, adding that the turnover is hard on students and teachers alike.

One teaching couple in the village had been in the Peace Corps in Belize. &uot;They said it’s a lot like being in the Peace Corps, except they get paid,&uot; Damerow said.

The average temperature so far this winter has been about 0 degrees, Damerow said. The village is on a river delta, so while it is beautiful, it is not the mountainous Alaskan scenery people are used to.

&uot;Everything revolves around the river,&uot; he said, adding that is what people use for transportation. They drive on it in the winter, and it won’t break up until late May.

&uot;There’s about a month when you can’t use the river,&uot; he added.

Damerow was in Albert Lea for a three-week break over the holidays to visit his parents, Diane and Ken Damerow. He returned to Alaska Friday.