Continue and Persist

That’s brilliant. Have you sent one to Peter at our favorite car company?
 
So do it! I’m sure they’d appreciate the kind words and positivity!
Seriously. Teachers need all the help they can get. I can tell you, the occasional kind word from a student made all the difference when I was teaching many years ago.
 
Seriously. Teachers need all the help they can get. I can tell you, the occasional kind word from a student made all the difference when I was teaching many years ago.
I didn't know you taught! I did too! I knew there was a reason I liked you :P

What'd you teach? I taught CS and business to Israeli and Palestinian teenagers in Jerusalem (the kids came from all over Israel and all over the west bank; in 2007, when I taught, Gaza was a non-starter, but the program used to take kids from Gaza before then too).

I taught with MEET. It was easily one of the most rewarding experiences of my entire life, and entirely due to the kids themselves. Seeing them grow (together, especially) was absolutely incredible.
 
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Seriously. Teachers need all the help they can get. I can tell you, the occasional kind word from a student made all the difference when I was teaching many years ago.
Yup, completely agree! I actually do that pretty regularly, saying hello at the start of every class, thanking them for almost anything, and complimenting them often! It makes me happy to see other people happy, and it also means teachers are nicer with me (win-win).

But one problem… how do I find their address? 🤣
 
My partner of many years was a schoolteacher in Chicago before he developed early-onset dementia. He sometimes had more trouble with the administrators than the students in the inner-city school where he taught. One afternoon he got home and said he needed to go to Kinko's to make copies of a test he was giving the next day. I asked him why he didn't make the copies at school. He said the copier in the teacher's lounge had been out of toner for several days, so he went to the administration office to use their copier. They told him it was "for administrators only". So he went to Kinko's, paid for the copying himself, and transferred to a charter school the next term.
 
Yup, completely agree! I actually do that pretty regularly, saying hello at the start of every class, thanking them for almost anything, and complimenting them often! It makes me happy to see other people happy, and it also means teachers are nicer with me (win-win).

But one problem… how do I find their address? 🤣
Send it to the school. Just address it to “ATTN: Teacher Name”
 
My partner of many years was a schoolteacher in Chicago before he developed early-onset dementia. He sometimes had more trouble with the administrators than the students in the inner-city school where he taught. One afternoon he got home and said he needed to go to Kinko's to make copies of a test he was giving the next day. I asked him why he didn't make the copies at school. He said the copier in the teacher's lounge had been out of toner for several days, so he went to the administration office to use their copier. They told him it was "for administrators only". So he went to Kinko's, paid for the copying himself, and transferred to a charter school the next term.
There are so many things about this post that make me sad.
 
My partner of many years was a schoolteacher in Chicago before he developed early-onset dementia. He sometimes had more trouble with the administrators than the students in the inner-city school where he taught. One afternoon he got home and said he needed to go to Kinko's to make copies of a test he was giving the next day. I asked him why he didn't make the copies at school. He said the copier in the teacher's lounge had been out of toner for several days, so he went to the administration office to use their copier. They told him it was "for administrators only". So he went to Kinko's, paid for the copying himself, and transferred to a charter school the next term.
I always said I would still be a teacher if it were just me and the students. It was all the adults who drove me nuts. Administrators. Government officials with zero training trying to tell me how to do my job. (Don't get me started on "No child left behind".) And some of the parents, who either were never responsive, or who prioritized their own family vacations over their child's schoolwork.
 
I didn't know you taught! I did too! I knew there was a reason I liked you :P

What'd you teach? I taught CS and business to Israeli and Palestinian teenagers in Jerusalem (the kids came from all over Israel and all over the west bank; in 2007, when I taught, Gaza was a non-starter, but the program used to take kids from Gaza before then too).

I taught with MEET. It was easily one of the most rewarding experiences of my entire life, and entirely due to the kids themselves. Seeing them grow (together, especially) was absolutely incredible.
I taught high school English for five years. Public and private schools. It was an incredible experience. But unfortunately, I became a statistic five years in and decided I needed to move on.

I don't do well with getting paid next to nothing AND getting no respect. I can do one or the other. Not both.
 
This thread ... I had to check I was on LucidOwners site. Would be so much fun to chit-chat with you folk. Yes I've been posting but typically delete entirely after extensive editing. This is why chatting over biers is preferable = nobody remembers what was said, but the feelings linger.

1733159269949.webp
 
This thread ... I had to check I was on LucidOwners site. Would be so much fun to chit-chat with you folk. Yes I've been posting but typically delete entirely after extensive editing. This is why chatting over biers is preferable = nobody remembers what was said, but the feelings linger.

View attachment 24887
For sure. I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt online, and assume best intent, because text is impossible to parse for intent, only perceived meaning. That’s why you’ll see me ask people to clarify. I hate text, unless someone (including me) has taken the real time to effectively write an *essay*, because then it is going to at least be thought through.

But very few people start from “seeking to understand,” and assume their first or second read is correct. When I can’t find a charitable interpretation, I try to ask for clarification, because I assume people are mostly good.

Most of the time we just post unfinished thoughts, because that’s how online discourse works. I’m fine with that; ain’t nobody got time to be writing essays all day.

But I do wish people tried to find charitable interpretations first; that happens in person because you have a human in front of you and can read body language, so if they’re not punching you in the face, they’re probably less angry than you think they are. :)

The internet seems to just always be punching each other in the face. 🤷‍♂️

And I am far from perfect. I screw this up all the time.
 
I always said I would still be a teacher if it were just me and the students. It was all the adults who drove me nuts. Administrators. Government officials with zero training trying to tell me how to do my job. (Don't get me started on "No child left behind".) And some of the parents, who either were never responsive, or who prioritized their own family vacations over their child's schoolwork.
My brother was a teacher for many years, elementary school. He had similar sentiments and took and early retirement when he could.
 
Resurrecting this thread. Was asked to share a favorite poem with 6th graders. Chose "The Tuft of Flowers" by Robert Frost.
For me it was about teachers. I have looked back and wished I could share the awesomeness of the effect teachers have have on me.
Even the "bad " ones.
We were taught "write what you know" and Robert Frost wrote about New England farm life. He was an English teacher, born in San Francisco.
He knew shit about New England farming. (I spent many summers making hay in New Hampshire--stone walls and milking cows).
So he was a fraud, and taught : "fake it 'till you make it".

But he was a damn good poet. for those who know poetry, this is considered a "minor" poem. (heroic couplets!)

I went to turn the grass once after one
Who mowed it in the dew before the sun.

The dew was gone that made his blade so keen
Before I came to view the leveled scene.

I looked for him behind an isle of trees;
I listened for his whetstone on the breeze.

But he had gone his way, the grass all mown,
And I must be, as he had been,—alone,

‘As all must be,’ I said within my heart,
‘Whether they work together or apart.’

But as I said it, swift there passed me by
On noiseless wing a ‘wildered butterfly,

Seeking with memories grown dim o’er night
Some resting flower of yesterday’s delight.

And once I marked his flight go round and round,
As where some flower lay withering on the ground.

And then he flew as far as eye could see,
And then on tremulous wing came back to me.

I thought of questions that have no reply,
And would have turned to toss the grass to dry;

But he turned first, and led my eye to look
At a tall tuft of flowers beside a brook,

A leaping tongue of bloom the scythe had spared
Beside a reedy brook the scythe had bared.

I left my place to know them by their name,
Finding them butterfly weed when I came.

The mower in the dew had loved them thus,
By leaving them to flourish, not for us,

Nor yet to draw one thought of ours to him.
But from sheer morning gladness at the brim.

The butterfly and I had lit upon,
Nevertheless, a message from the dawn,

That made me hear the wakening birds around,
And hear his long scythe whispering to the ground,

And feel a spirit kindred to my own;
So that henceforth I worked no more alone;

But glad with him, I worked as with his aid,
And weary, sought at noon with him the shade;

And dreaming, as it were, held brotherly speech
With one whose thought I had not hoped to reach.

‘Men work together,’ I told him from the heart,
‘Whether they work together or apart.



"With one whose thought I had not hoped to reach...."

Each teacher prepares the ground for the next. The work is hard, and endless, and has no apparent reward. But there is beauty along the way, if you can see it.

... and that makes all the difference.
 
What'd you teach? I taught CS and business to Israeli and Palestinian teenagers in Jerusalem (the kids came from all over Israel and all over the west bank; in 2007, when I taught, Gaza was a non-starter, but the program used to take kids from Gaza before then too).
Good for you
 
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