I am a teacher

I am a teacher. I put it in writing for everyone to see, even if this is something I hesitate to say out loud in social settings.

To some this might seem like a strange manner, but there is a reason for my propensity to avoid the topic: Everybody has a story, a history or a reason to criticize what is going on in school. And even if this is 30 years back in time they feel it appropriate to let me know, even try to make me defend their own misbehavior, based on their own opinion of the situation at the time.

I have no urge to engage in these sometimes heated discussions. I try not to judge (but I do have thoughts on how I would have reacted in similar cases) and speak up. Maybe I should. I know that to lean back and merely listen might be misunderstood as being indifferent to what they tell me (and everyone in near surroundings who follow the conversation), but I am not. I just do not feel it is the time and place to correct or come forward as a smarty-pants in a setting where we should all feel good about ourselves and enjoy. I do not avoid discussions, I love to exchange views and believes, but not when I feel I might come down on somebody who is not totally oriented on the matter, but never the less have strong feelings towards it.

(Just now I revealed what a smarty-pants I actually am, didn’t I?)

I am proud of my job. I am proud of what I do in the classroom. I am proud of what results I get. But most of all I am proud of my students.

Young people of today have in many ways a tougher life than I had when being a teenager. Even if I was a teenager during the 80s when fashion, music, politics and strong ideals changed rapidly and often with great contrasts, I feel society demand a lot more of the young ones of today.

We often complain about teenagers and how they fail to follow through when it comes to what we expect them to engage in, whether it is schoolwork, chores, how to spend money, how to interact with others and many other aspects of life.

I somewhat feel that most of what we complain about is unfair.

They are so busy. They are always engaged with something (unfortunately not always what I tell them to engage in) and most often what they engage in are pretty serious matters.

They have strong feelings of loyalty to others, political believes, ideals, morals (yes; morals, not always my own choices of morals, but then again who am I to judge? I chose my own, it would be unfair to disagree with their choices), environment and materialistic issues. I even feel that they have reflected over their own future.

Through the years I have seen what they become, who they become and what success they will achieve. I hear about their victories and failings. I know that the boys I meet when they are 16 in most cases turn out to be great fathers, good partners and reliable providers for their families. Now, that is, to me, a great motivation to keep doing what I do. And when I run into them, years later, they tell me that they remember I was their teacher. And I have not yet experienced that was, to them, a bad thing. Not something they feel to hold against me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o