Description
What's it really like being a teacher? Not like, the grading and lesson plans, but what do you *think* about as a teacher? How does teaching make you think back about going through school yourself? What are the emotions? I started writing all this because after every graduation ceremony for my students, I'd drive home and feel like I was still a kid in the eyes of my family. As it says in the following pages, I'd come home and no one would listen. So I kept thinking how... "...I'd love one good conversation with my parents, these days. Which is heartbreaking, because they aren't gone. Not yet. They will be someday, but right now they're relatively healthy, maybe about as much as usual, as ever. But the conversations are as limited as always, too. After one of these graduations, if only they'd ask with the same warm tones I use with my students about if there were any neat kids I met, or fellow staff I really helped. I'm not a saint, but it's because of my own childhood that I know how much frustration a student, a person, can go through when no one listens. Yet here we are, still, with conversations about the new house and what trees to take down, about the myriad projects of yard and room. We're here still talking about the last time I saw an optometrist, about if the windows were weatherized. I swear, if it wasn't for asking about my son, their grandson, the conversations would be no different than when I was in high school myself, asking merely about responsibilities and chores." This is the deeply reflective, honest, pseudo-diary of a real teacher. Each section is a short, few-minute read with lots of pop-culture, lots of English-teacher references, and a lot of thinking about how it's impossible to teach without being transported back to when I was a kid myself.
Once Upon a Time in Education
