{"id":72705,"date":"2022-11-20T18:22:31","date_gmt":"2022-11-20T18:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/11\/20\/army-veteran-finds-his-true-calling-as-a-teacher\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:31:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:31:46","slug":"army-veteran-finds-his-true-calling-as-a-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/education-transition\/2022\/11\/20\/army-veteran-finds-his-true-calling-as-a-teacher\/","title":{"rendered":"Army veteran finds his true calling as a teacher"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. \u2014 Over the last eight years, Christopher Simmons has turned his classroom at Meadowlark Middle School into a safe space for students with special needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf they need anything,\u201d he said one afternoon after the last of his students filtered out of his room, \u201cthat door is open.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bright room decorated with posters on decimals and percentages and an American flag, Room 602 has also been a sanctuary for Simmons after his years of feeling adrift following a forced medical retirement from the Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helping a student work out a math problem, Simmons feels a world away from Fallujah, Mosul, Baghdad, and all of the trauma and ensuing depression that came from serving in a war zone, where he was always on alert and always fearful of being killed or having to kill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Various
Various photos of Christopher Simmons while he served in the Army are displayed on a desk on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022, at Meadowlark Middle School in Winston-Salem, N.C. (Allison Lee Isley\/The Winston-Salem Journal via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Simmons credits the Army with helping him become a better teacher<\/a>. He doesn\u2019t give up on students, just as his drill sergeants never gave up on him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But his military service, what he once considered his life\u2019s calling, no longer defines him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something else does. Those kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a soldier anymore,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cI\u2019m a teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting to that point, where he could freely shed the image of himself as a soldier and embrace being a teacher has been its own hard-fought battle, one that nearly broke him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A natural progression<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Simmons was born in Lumberton, then moved with his family to Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His struggles in school started early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t grasp language. I couldn\u2019t read,\u201d Simmons said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In those early days of special education, his parents and teachers collaborated on ways to help him with what he guesses would today be labeled as dyslexia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simmons took speech therapy, went to after-school tutoring and was retained a grade by his parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even after he began to grasp concepts and make good grades, he couldn\u2019t shake the notion that he was not as smart as other kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day, he joined the Boy Scouts. Something clicked. He felt comfortable and confident, feelings he never experienced in the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe organization, the structure,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cI got it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The military seemed a natural progression. He dropped out of high school, got his equivalency diploma and joined the Army in 1989.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he put on the uniform, all those lingering feelings of inadequacy, of being the kid who needed special help with his school work, dissipated.<\/p>\n\n\n\t