Psychology and Geometry. Two subjects that appear to never interact with each other. While that might be true, that doesn’t mean that their teachers never interact. At Vista, it’s actually quite the opposite. Mr. and Mrs Rushing teach psychology and geometry respectively. The couple are two of the most beloved teachers here at Vista, and are, ‘besties for life’ as they’ve referred to each other.
The Rushings have been at Vista for 16 years. Mr Rushing currently teaches AP Psychology, and Mrs. Rushing teaches Advanced Geometry. This means that they very rarely teach the same students at the same time. However, over the years, there has been a lot of student overlap. Any students who have had both of them, or even one of them always agree that they are both very good people and very good at their jobs.
“You feel a calling and you feel a purpose that motivates you, and when that’s the case, you’ve got a good job,” Mr. Rushing said. “I don’t think it would matter what I taught I mean, I’ve had jobs before and I’ve done things that I wasn’t compelled by and it wasn’t that fun, but this to me is fun.” Mr. Rushing said.
The Rushings are so passionate about their jobs. It’s unique that they are both exactly where they want to be and doing exactly what they want to do. They both get so excited about teaching and as someone who has been taught by both of them, I was a firsthand witness to this passion. Whether it was Mr. Rushing getting so excited by a topic that he had to grab a desk, whip it around in front of the class, and sit on top of it, or Mrs. Rushing being so hyped about a new theorem that she gets ahead of herself and has to slow down, they both have a love for teaching and more importantly, a love for their students.
“It hasn’t always been geometry, but it’s always been math,” Mrs. Rushing said. “I spent most of my career teaching algebra. And then the last five years or so, teaching geometry. As long as I get to teach my kids, I don’t care. I do this job not because of math. That’s really how I got into it, was because I wanted to make an impact with kids. I don’t really care what content I teach. I mean, I would teach cooking, just whatever.” Mrs Rushing said.
Mrs. Rushing has known her whole life she wanted to be a teacher, but Mr. Rushing’s decision to teach only came after they got together. Initially, he wanted to do mission work, but after conversations with Mrs. Rushing, they realized he could make a bigger impact if he was a teacher. Since making that decision, he has dove headfirst into becoming the best teacher he could be, and he knows this is exactly where he belongs.
“I told him that my mission was gonna be this, this is my mission field,” Mrs. Rushing said. “Once I told him that, then he kind of started going, Hey, I’ve never really thought about it that way, maybe I’ll try being a teacher, maybe that’s a good place for me. And obviously, I think it’s turned out to be exactly where he’s supposed to be.” Mrs. Rushing said. “That’s what got me into teaching and coaching,” Mr. Rushing said. “It was literally the fact that she suggested it, and I was like, that sounded like a really good option or a really good idea for me. Mr. Rushing said.
Since real life isn’t like a sitcom, it’s very unique for couples to work together, especially in high school. Because Mr. and Mrs. Rushing don’t teach similar subjects, and as of this year they aren’t even in the same building, they don’t often see each other during the day. However, this doesn’t stop them from going home at the end of the day and sharing their fun stories about students they both know with each other.
“We love what we do, so we’re not really about that life of going home and gripping about it a lot,” Mrs. Rushing said. “It’s fun to be able to go home and be like, guess what so and so said today, it was so awesome. We’re both rooting for kids, in other words, so the discussion we have would be in their best interest, not in a negative sense.” Mrs Rushing said.
Many times, teachers here at Vista are good teachers, but not necessarily good people. Other times, they’re good people and not great teachers. That’s what makes the Rushings so special. They both are both.
“We just, we both love our jobs,” Mr Rushing said. We’re devoted, we’re dedicated teachers, always we have been. We don’t have our own kids, so we really invest a lot in our students. I just think it’s kind of the way that both of our personalities are. It’s like this morning, I got up at 5:15 a.m., I walked my dog, took a shower, cleaned up, and I was fired up and ready to go to school. I knew I was going to get to teach something cool today. So yeah, when you have that, it’s like a purpose-driven life.”
