Even on a Good Day, Your Feet Hurt

You can tell that today wasn’t catastrophic because I’m home at 3:30PM. The harder the day, the longer I have to stay to pick up the pieces. And although it wasn’t a terrible day, I’m still tired. Teaching any kids is exhausting, but teaching emotionally disturbed, impulsive and uncivil students is like working retail, in the mall, for minimum wage, in hell. (Yes, hell has a mall, and several Wal-Marts.)

So I’m home, writing up tomorrows biology quiz…and sitting because my feet hurt. Talking about retail…my hooves haven’t ached like this since I worked at Yankee Candle many years ago. So long to an ergonomic chair at a kooshie desk job.

Now, you may be wondering why today wasn’t all that bad when last week took a few years off my life. The biggest reason is that the largest source of trouble and disturbance in my class has pretty much given up on any education. Meaning, she has decided she rather run in the halls all day, fighting girls and wrestling with boys instead of staying in class and, oh, I don’t know, learning. Last week I was very much the liberal minded instructor, urging Lavina to stay in class, grasp her education by the horns and get her (or the state’s) money’s worth. I even blocked the door, to my chagrin that caused a very big calamity. NOTE TO ALL NEW TEACHERS: Never block a student’s exit, especially when they are taller than you. So, for a change, this week I’ve decided to pleasantly let Lavina exit the class and go on without interruption. All liberal impulses aside, if the student wanted to learn, she wouldn’t be “running the halls” as she calls it. Veteran teachers tell me “You can’t reach them all, all the time.” And it’s true. When my students is ready to come in, sit down, put down her knife and leave her weave alone, I’ll be ready to teach her.