There are things one doesn't understand until they've had the opportunity to experience them for themselves.
I never understood some of the things my parents said while I was growing up. The best example I can come up with, "Stop crying, or I'll give you something to cry about!!" Now that I'm a parent, and have experienced a frustrating tantrum at the end of the day over nothing...I fully understand the expression. There were a lot of things about my parents I didn't understand until I had the opportunity to walk in their shoes.
I honestly have always thought that teachers are (literally) crazy. No, not just when I was a kid... but all the way through my adulthood. I just figured they were all nutty... nature of the beast kind of thing. But now, now that I've been walking in those shoes for a few months... well... yeah, teachers are crazy. But, not in the way I always thought.
Imagine this:
You go into work every day with a passion for what you do. You want to help, you give of yourself freely and openly, you make things as simple and obvious as you can to help the people you work with understand what it is that you are trying to show them. You take concepts, figure out how to explain them to someone who has never heard of them, you twist them into a million different shapes, and attempt to force that square peg into a round hole (some days just WISHING you had a hammer).
Of course while you are doing all this, you are being ignored, disrespected, called a racist (and any number of lovely insults), and sexually harassed.
Now you have to find the balance... somewhere among all this you have to walk the fine line of behavior control and actually teaching something. So, now you are teaching, disciplining (its a word now!), on top of those things: lesson planning, grading papers and recording that data, calling parents, and helping students with their homework.
Now... add in that I am in Special Ed. I have a separate caseload of 15 students. Each with an individualized education plan (that I am responsible for maintaining, and updating at least once a year). Each student with their own list of problems and issues...
"I don't want to be in this class, I want to be in that class."
"Little Johnny isn't doing his homework, can he come to your room at lunch so you can help him?"
"Betsy is acting out in my class, can you tell me what I should do to manage that behavior?"
or one of my favorites:
"Zack isn't working in my class, but I know you have him in two of yours, can you see that he does MY work in YOUR class? Or, maybe he could spend some time with you at lunch or after school?"
WTF? Some balls huh?
Yes, teachers are crazy.
For damn good reason.
And, totally not in the way I expected.
