[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: using 'Miss'; teachers, Boston Public

[Ebony Elizabeth Thomas]

Home for lunch today...

Denise:

Thanks for sharing your Sunday School story!

>----
>Speaking of teachers, I saw Boston Public tonight, and thought of Ebony, 
>and
>the other educators on the list when I heard Kevin J's speech.  Heroes
>hidden in the grass.  Fits you guys!
>
>That is just a remarkable show.  I wish I had gotten into it earlier.

I'm glad someone else thinks so!  I only got hooked on BP three eps ago... 
this fall I had a Monday night seminar and was just too darn busy to watch 
any TV.  Then construction in my area knocked out cable from November until 
April... and our building has an FM radio station that broadcasts out of it, 
so the regular reception is non-existent.  This means I could not watch even 
regular television for five months.  :-(

Anyway, when I first heard about it, I wasn't expecting much!  Ally McBeal 
is a cute show, but what's comic in legal drama doesn't play out well in 
education... the problems in schools are too serious.

But I am *so* pleased with what's David Kelley has done.  I've recommended 
the show to many of my colleagues... I identify strongly with that English 
teacher and her plight to protect a child from abuse... was in the exact 
same situation last year!  The fact that she teaches 11th grade English is 
something that tickled me... that'll be me next year.  (Though I have no 
idea *how* I'm going to leave the darlings at my current school... you end 
up caring for your students as if they're your own family... teacher/student 
bonds often become quasi-parental.)

I also like how the inescapability of our profession is shown on the show.  
You *do* spend lots of long evenings at school, especially during the hectic 
fall--people say we don't have a 9 to 5 job, and I agree.  It's a 24-7 
job... just like writers find stories in all of life, we who teach find 
lessons absolutely everywhere.  You also see students everywhere--this is 
only Year 2 1/2 for me, and I run into my students in the weirdest places... 
even once when I was on a date.  (Of course, it was all over school that 
Monday.)

It's hard for us to have lives.  My colleagues and I talk about this all the 
time.  Indeed, in many school districts nationwide, we can lose our 
certification for all sorts of strange things.  Misdemeanor arrest.  Sexual 
preference.  Being in the same nightclub as students.  In college, we were 
told that in a very conservative school district in Florida non-alcoholic 
teachers were called into hearings for being seen purchasing liquor on their 
own time... end of story.  In the 1990s.

Kevin J's speech made this lump form in my throat, because we *do* look 
exhausted and pitiful at the end of the school day.  In college, I interned 
in other sectors (health administration, finance, non-profit)... I wish 
someone had told me how much this job tires you out before I changed my 
major.  But no one can know how draining it is to teach until you actually 
do it yourself.

The general public (and many of the parents at my school) thinks that it can 
tell us how to do this job, because after all, everyone went to school at 
one time or another and observed teachers.  We are also dealing with 
people's children, so if we contact home about a problem in academics or 
citizenship, there is a tendency for parents to become very defensive.  If 
schools are failing, it is all our fault... the unspoken mantra in American 
society seems to be "teachers are losers".  I handle parents with this sort 
of attitude (many of whom are twice my age and have terminal degrees) with 
kid gloves... our training (which is to educate and nurture children and 
teens) is just as valid as that for any other field.  But even the best 
teachers get disrespected in this fashion at times.

In high school, I echoed Kevin J's sentiments.  I really did *not* want to 
be like my teachers... and then came my epiphany in college.

:::laughing:::

</end ramble>
>
>Of course, I started out the season hooked on Dark Angel!  (And will be
>glued to the screen tomorrow at 9/Fox!)

Jessica Alba is awesome!  I love that show too.  And I hope Logan gets the 
girl.  <g>  (Told you I ship *everything*!)

--Ebony



<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
Ebony AKA AngieJ
ebonyink at hotmail.com

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"Not that great German master in his dream
Of harmonies that thundered amongst the stars
At the creation, ever heard a theme
Nobler than 'Go down, Moses.'  Mark its bars--
How like a mighty trumpet-call they stir
The blood.  Such are the notes that men have sung
Going to valorous deeds; such tones there were
That helped make history when Time was young."

--James Weldon Johnson, composer, Negro National Anthem

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