I have spent two decades of my life working in sales.

I don't mean newspaper advertising sales: I mean in education.

Every moment of teaching becomes a sales job. You work your hardest to sell kids on ideas that they don't necessarily walk through the door hoping to buy.

In a way, it reminds me of the folks out there selling securities, annuities and things like that. Your job is to help someone prioritize his or her future, which requires investment today. That's the sales job in education: you work to help young folks understand that a little time and energy spent in the classroom now will open their opportunities for success later down the road.

And really, it's not about what they learn in school so much as it is about how they learn to learn. School cannot possibly equip a teenager with every bit of knowledge and know-how he or she will ever need. No textbook could be deep enough, no lecture thorough enough, no program comprehensive enough.

To be clear: High school doesn't teach you what you need to know; high school teaches you how to learn the necessary information yourself.

It's different in Kindergarten, right? You learn what sounds the letters make and how to sort objects by size and color. It's information presented, information learned, information remembered for the first several years of school

But at some point, the sales job takes over, because you can't just unload fact-after-fact-after-fact on a sophomore in biology class. The student has to learn to incorporate the lectures and discussions from class with the textbook reading with the notes he or she took during the class period. It's a more rigorous process - but when a student masters how to find, gather, record and present information effectively, then you have an educated individual.

Now, there are numerous paths to success in the grade-book. Good memorizers or highly logical kids can make it look easy to get the 'A.' The sweet spot - the mental 'real estate' I'm trying to sell as an educator - is that harmonious place where kids recognize basic information, are able to put concepts that involve several pieces of information into their own words and then can write it on that essay answer for the test.

That's a tough sales job, because let's face it, most kids don't naturally want to become prolific writers of essays. It's hard work, and it's just not that fun for most of us. My favorite play is the choice card.

By that, I mean that I tried to sell students on their futures as a series of choices. Good decisions now lead to better choices later. Better choices later lead to greater options later in their careers and in the time of their future retirements. Ever try to talk to a 16-year-old about dedicating himself so that the 65-year-old version of him will be able to fly around the world? That's a tough sell, believe me.

And I've had many students say, 'I just want to go to work and make some money.' I can certainly understand that. But I remind them that continuing their education now will start them off making more money and will lead to better chances to advance in their careers later. It will also become far likelier that they will be able to work in the fields they choose, rather than taking whatever job they can find - and therefore risking having to work without fulfillment or joy.

'You can work anytime,' I have said so frequently over the years. 'Someone is always hiring. Now is the time to make yourself ready to work in the field you choose.'

Some of them - hopefully more than just a handful over the years - have listened and gotten those post-secondary degrees, certificates and other trainings that have allowed them to work in their chosen careers. For other, I wan't maybe a good enough salesman.

But that's why I keep on selling. Because I love watching my kids succeed when they go out and start their lives. It's the driving goal of just about every high school teacher I have ever met.

Matt Pearl owns and operates The Tri-County Ledger.