One of the most difficult things about teaching at the high school
level is that you're working primarily with kids who don't always think
about the things that come out of their mouth.
. . . .
[yeah, that's both incredibly over-generic and overly-obvious...]
As one of my colleagues puts it:
"Teaching is an incredibly easy job... IF you don't care about your kids."
The past two weeks have been the most trying of my [short] career, and
without getting into specifics
[which I can't]... it's difficult when a
struggling student accuses you of *not* caring.
The concept is quite simple, and I'm sure parents deal with it in a way
that is infinitely more difficult than what I face as a teacher:
When a kid asks for something that they want (but don't necessarily
"deserve") but don't get it, the kid will sometimes twist the denial
into a "you don't care about me!!!" type of scenario... when
oftentimes, it's quite the opposite
(even though it may be far from
obvious to the child).
The simplicity of the idea makes it easy to understand... but
incredibly difficult to deal with when you're the one accused to being
"unfair" or "uncaring".
Some of the things that we, as teachers, have to internalize are just
unbelievable. The verbal abuse that we can get from ALL over, and then
to be expected to turn around 30 seconds later and put on a happy face
for 30 teenagers and TEACH... that is one thing I haven't quite figured
out yet. Just today I totally copped out on my 4th period...
fortunately it was a 30 minute shortened period (thanks to TAKS) so I
doubt they noticed much.
Luckily... Spring Break is just around the corner. Retreat, food,
family, and more food. Oh and sleep. Lots of sleep.
Sleep, come hither~
Comments (2)
i knew teaching was a hard job but having now read your entry...i realize even more how hard of a job it is. keep up the good work, man.
i completely understand.
i don't ever want to hear the phrase, "it's not fair" ever again.