hey, teacher, leave those kids alone...

"The truth is that parents are not really interested in justice. They just want quiet."
---Bill Cosby

How often is this true of teachers? How often is this true of me?

Too often, as the days go by, I find.

I want so much to be a good teacher - I will settle for good at this point, though I aspire to greatness. But I fear I'm mediocre or worse, as I shout and cajole, seeking, indeed, too often, that quiet that symbolizes control and submission.

I seem to feel that that submission to the teacher's goal is the prerequisite to learning. Why do I think, in moments when I have time to reflect, that it seems more likely that the two somehow go hand-in-hand... that actual learning takes place when students are engaged in the teacher's goal, not subservient to it.

So easy to say high-minded things like that. So hard to overcome despair, lethargy, exhaustion, and even anger and resentment, to even try to achieve them.

I recall all my earlier pronouncements about what's wrong with teachers, and I cringe. It's so much harder than I thought.