You Didn’t Become a Teacher to Be a Babysitter: Reclaiming Purpose in the Classroom — and Beyond

In this powerful kickoff to a 3-part Captain America series, Vanessa Jackson unpacks what makes Steve Rogers more than just a superhero — and how his journey mirrors that of so many teachers today. From being paraded as a symbol to reclaiming his purpose, Cap’s story is one of values, conviction, and courageous action.

Vanessa explores how educators, like Cap, often feel reduced to performance — test scores, politics, or being treated like glorified babysitters — instead of being honored as the impact-makers they truly are. If you're feeling lost in the system or questioning your next move, this episode will help you find your compass again.

🛡️ Discover the power of choosing purpose over permission
 🧭 Learn why your values are your real “super soldier serum”
 🎯 And explore the moment when it’s time to jump — even without a parachute

✅ Episode Tags 

Career Transition, Teacher Burnout, Captain America, Teacher Identity, Purpose, Leadership, Steve Rogers, Peggy Carter, Values, Courage, Burnout Recovery, Women in Education, Teacher to Coach, Education Podcast, Veteran’s Day, Marvel Metaphors, Personal Growth

🔗 Recommended Links for This Episode’s Show Notes:

The DECIDE Course (Self-paced)
 Explore the self-paced DECIDE course to see if you are ready to leave the classroom or if you just need a small change.
👉 Learn more here. 

Discovery Call Calendar
 Book a free Discovery Session with Vanessa:
👉 https://teachersintransition.com/calendar

Email: Vanessa@TeachersInTransition.com

Leave a Voicemail/Text: 512-640-9099

🌐 Social Links

• Instagram + Threads @teachers.in.transition
• Facebook Page
• LinkedIn
• Bluesky @beyondteaching.bsky.social
• X (Twitter) @EduExitStrategy

🎬 Pop Culture Context

• Captain America: The First Avenger – available to stream on Disney+

The transcript to this podcast is found on the episode’s homepage at Buzzsprout

Transcript

**Inspired by Captain America: The First Avenger

Hi!  And Welcome back to another episode of Teachers in Transition with me, Vanessa Jackson! Today on the pod, we’re going to talk about Captain America. It seems fitting given that the day that I record this is Veteran’s Day.  As the wife of a veteran who served 20 years, I know very well what families sacrifice so military members can serve. Cap is my favorite, and I knew I’d eventually do an episode that included him, but when I sat down with my thoughts and feelings and the current environment, I ended up with a trilogy of sorts.  This is the first of 3 episodes about Cap.  But it’s not just about Cap.  It’s about what I see in teachers.  Teachers fight this same fight – perhaps not against Hydra, but there’s that same pull every day in every classroom about trying to make a difference and do the right thing when the odds are stacked against you and it feels like the villains are everywhere. 
 
Prior to the release of this movie, Hollywood at large had learned from the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy and Zack Snyder’s Super-reboot that superheroes couldn’t be financially viable anymore unless they had a dark side. Captain America took that and proved it was all WRONG.  That heroes could be earnest and hopeful and rooted in firm moral convictions which included faith in people first. 

Before Captain America: The First Avenger, was released in 2011.  I had been all excited about Thor since I was a Chris Hemsworth after his short stint as George Kirk in the Star Trek Kelvin timeline.  I went to see this one so I wouldn’t be left behind when the first Avengers movie premiered.  I wasn’t all that excited about it, and I didn’t know all that much about the character.  I knew Steve Rogers as a comic book icon and a star-spangled figure I mostly associated with action figures and patriotic posters. He was very goody-goody in the animated series I caught, but it was all very meh.
 
 

it wasn’t until Chris Evans stepped into the role that I really saw him — not as a superhero, but as something more. 

Evans gave Steve Rogers something the character had always hinted at but never quite translated in animation: earnestness. There’s a sincerity in his eyes that tells you he doesn’t want to be great for the sake of glory. He wants to do what’s right because it’s right. And that kind of integrity, that quiet moral clarity, is magnetic. I finally felt a kinship with a character because the values were so much more aligned with me than I was used to.

Before the serum, Steve was the smallest guy in the room — asthmatic, frail, rejected five times from military service — but what he lacked in size he more than made up for in courage. There’s that scene during training when the other recruits scramble to climb the flagpole. The prize at the top is a free ride back to camp, and everyone’s trying to out-muscle each other. When they’re done, Steve just walks up, studies the pole, pulls out the pin, and lets the whole thing drop. He takes the red flag with a smile. Brains over brawn. Strategy over struggle.

That moment tells you everything you need to know about who he is: clever, humble, and unwilling to confuse strength with goodness. It’s the same reason Dr. Erskine chooses him for the super-soldier program — because, as he says, “The serum amplifies everything that is inside. So good becomes great. Bad becomes worse.”

I mean, it’s true for all of us, isn’t it? Whatever power we’re given — whether it’s a platform, a classroom, a leadership role — it amplifies who we already are. The work doesn’t make you good. Your values do.

I think about that a lot when I talk to teachers who are deciding what comes next. The system may have changed. The politics have definitely hardened. But the good you carry — that’s still you. The serum doesn’t create the heart. It reveals it.

And then, there’s Peggy Carter.

Peggy is in Steve’s compass not just as a love interest when we see it in the filmstrip reel, but because she’s his true north. She’s the one who reminds him who he is when the world gets confusing or cruel. Long before he picks up that shield, Peggy sees him — the good man, the strategist, the fighter who refuses to back down from bullies. She doesn’t fall for Captain America. She believes in Steve Rogers.

Their connection isn’t built on looks or hero worship. It’s built on shared values and mutual courage. Peggy’s brave in her own right — a woman forging her path in a man’s war, standing tall in heels and conviction. They mirror each other. He stands up to bullies; she stands up to the men who underestimate her. They are both, in their own ways, refusing to shrink.

That’s why she is more than a love interest. She’s his compass. When he doubts himself, he looks to her — and in her eyes, he finds the version of himself that’s still pure, still hopeful, still whole.

We all need that kind of alignment. Someone — or something — that points us back to who we really are. For some, it’s a person; for others, it’s a purpose. But that true north matters, especially when the world keeps trying to pull you off course.

Captain America: The First Avenger sets that foundation. Before he becomes a symbol, before he’s frozen in ice, he’s a man who knows exactly who he is — and that’s what makes him worthy of the shield.

One of the most heartbreaking — and relatable — parts of The First Avenger comes after Steve becomes Captain America. He’s finally achieved the thing he’s always wanted: a chance to serve, to make a difference. But instead of joining the fight, he’s paraded across stages in a glittering costume, selling war bonds and performing for the cameras.

On the surface, it looks like success. He’s popular, adored, even cheered. But he’s miserable. He’s been trained to protect people, and now he’s being used as a tool for morale. A symbol without substance. He tries to tell himself that he’s doing good work, but when he takes that show to the war zone, he sees he was lying to himself.

He’s not angry about fame — he’s frustrated by waste. He knows he was made for more 
That moment, when he realizes he’s being used as a trained monkey instead of a soldier — that’s where many of us have been. You give your all, you do the work, and suddenly you’re reduced to a talking point, a number, a prop in someone else’s campaign.

And yet, what does he do?
 He doesn’t throw a tantrum or rebel for the sake of ego. He finds a way to make meaning again. When he learns that Bucky’s unit has been captured, he doesn’t wait for permission. He acts. He takes a leap — literally takes a leap — behind enemy lines. That’s the shift from “used” to “useful.”

That’s the moment he reclaims his purpose.

I think a lot of teachers know that feeling too.
 We go into education to help, to lift, to serve — and somewhere along the way, we end up performing instead of transforming. Endless meetings, paperwork, metrics, and politics have replaced the mission. The spark that drew us in got buried under bureaucracy.

But then one day, your gut says, This isn’t it anymore.
That’s your “jump out of the plane” moment.  And as anyone will tell you, once you jump out of that plane, there’s no getting back in it. 

That’s the voice that says, “I didn’t sign up to be a mascot or a babysitter. I signed up to make a difference.”

Steve doesn’t disobey out of arrogance — he acts out of conscience. That’s integrity.
 And ironically, it’s that very act — the decision to do what’s right instead of what’s permitted — that turns him from a government prop into a leader.  

He doesn’t give orders for power’s sake, either.
 In fact, there’s only one moment in the entire trilogy where he pulls rank:  when he tells Lieutenant Carter that he technically outranks her. And even then, he says it with that quiet blend of humor and respect. He uses authority as accountability, not control. I think as teachers we YEARN for our leadership to act the same way I with accountability. 

He leads with people, not over them. 
And that distinction is what separates command from character.

For those of us standing at a crossroads — teachers, leaders, creators — that’s a lesson worth remembering.
 When you feel reduced to performance, find your way back to purpose.
 When your work starts to feel hollow, fill it with meaning again — even if that means creating something new, stepping out of line, or walking into uncertainty.

Steve didn’t stop being Captain America when he left the stage. He became Captain America when he stepped into danger for the people he cared about.

That’s what courage looks like.
 Not defiance for its own sake, but conviction in motion.

So maybe it’s worth asking yourself:
 Where in your life are you still standing on a stage when your heart’s ready for the field?
 Where are you waiting for permission to act on something you already know is right?

Because sometimes, the most radical act of loyalty — to your purpose, to your values, to yourself — is the decision to stop performing and start participating again.

Let’s bring this home by talking about what it means to choose who you are according to your values — how to stay grounded in your moral compass, even when the system, or the world, or your circumstances try to tell you otherwise.

Steve didn’t become Captain America because he was the strongest or the fastest. He became Captain America because he chose who he was long before anyone gave him a title.

He volunteered. He stepped forward when everyone else stepped back. He kept trying to get into the military despite all the rejections because he didn’t think he shouldn’t have to fight against bullies. He jumped on that grenade in training even when he didn’t know it was a dummy grenade.  And those moments — those decisions — are elements of his true character.

It’s the same moment every one of us faces when we hit a crossroads: stay, go, or grow.
 We can’t always control the system, the policy, or the people in charge — but we can decide who we are within it.

Values are the real super-soldier serum. They amplify what’s already there.

And Steve? His values never changed, even when the world did.

He didn’t stop being the kid from Brooklyn just because he became a symbol. He didn’t stop questioning orders when those orders conflicted with his conscience. And when he fell — literally and figuratively — he always got back up, because integrity is its own kind of gravity. It pulls you toward what’s right, even when it’s hard.  And he could do it all day.

Peggy helped to put him back on track when the fame hit hard. Remember, she WAS his compass.
She represented his truest self and what he was fighting for – that he was always more than just a trained monkey on a unicycle. She grounded him in his convictions when the mission blurred and the noise got loud. She saw him before the serum, before the fame, before the shield. She knew who he was. It’s interesting that the photo she kept of him was the one before the serum. 

And in the chaos of war and duty and sacrifice, he never let go of that compass.
 He carried her with him — not as a memory, but as a mirror.
 When he looked at her, he was always reminded of the man he wanted to be.

That’s what it means to have a true north.  What is yours?
 It doesn’t have to be a person. It can be a purpose, a principle, a faith, a conviction — something that brings you back to yourself when you start to lose your way.

For teachers, that compass might be your belief in curiosity, or compassion, or justice. It might be your love for helping others grow. Or maybe it’s the quiet conviction that the system isn’t the mission — the people are. Fo re it is the bility to build agency in others . It is a throughline that I have carried through m y teaching and my practice here at Teachers in Transition. 

Whatever it is, that is what you return to when you make your next decision.

When you’re standing in that “DECIDE” phase — unsure whether to stay, to shift, or to step away — your values are the map. They’re actually at the core of every decision you make. 
 You don’t need anyone’s permission to follow them.
 You just need the courage to trust them.

It’s not about perfection. Steve wasn’t a perfect soldier — he was, as Dr. Erskine said, a good man.
And maybe that’s the lesson we all need right now.
You don’t have to be flawless. I surely am not flawless. You just have to be faithful — to what you believe in, to who you’re becoming, to what feels right in your gut.

Because the truth is, when the world changes — when policies crumble, when leadership disappoints, when the mission shifts — your values are the only constant you’ll ever have.
 They’re your shield.
 They’re your compass.
 They’re your power.

So as we wrap up today, I want to leave you with this question:
 When the noise fades and the dust settles, what does your gut tell you?

Does it whisper that you’re still where you’re meant to be?
 Or is it quietly urging you toward something new — something that aligns with who you are now?

That’s your next step. That’s your calling. That’s your super soldier serum.

You already have what you need.

All that’s left… is to decide.

If today’s episode resonated with you, I hope you’ll take a few quiet moments to listen to your gut — really listen. That instinct, that quiet voice inside, is the same part of you that once said, I want to make a difference.

If it’s whispering that it’s time for change, don’t ignore it. Explore it. You can find resources, reflection guides, and more about  DECIDE course at TeachersInTransition.  It’s self-paced

And remember — you don’t need permission to follow your calling. You just need the courage to trust your compass.

And so until next time, we’ll keep moving forward. And next week we’re going to continue this conversation about Captain America and what it feels like as a teacher to be in an environment when you can’t trust the system in which you work as we float through Captain American: The Winter Solider. 

There are a variety of ways to get in touch with me all listed in the show notes, but the important thing to know is that I am here and I am ready to listen to you.  This is a great time of year to really dig into things like your value and your purpose and to look for Clarity.   And remember – the best time to start your job search or career transition was six months ago. The next best time is now. 

*******

Email me at Vanessa@teachersintransition.com
Leave a voicemail or text at 512-640-9099
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