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From: laura@utcsstat.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Teachers
Message-ID: <1405@utcsstat.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 8-Nov-83 22:34:54 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsstat.1405
Posted: Tue Nov  8 22:34:54 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 9-Nov-83 01:31:56 EST
Organization: U. of Toronto, Canada
Lines: 31

I went home to fix my brother's pinball machine tonight (and brought the
wrong sort of fuses, so have to go again tomorrow, ARRGGHHH) and talked
to my mother, a grade 8 teacher.

My mother is a wonderful teacher. She is having a very tough year. Her
problem is that her Vice Principal is a moron, and once in a fit of
exasperation she turned to him and said "My dear child!". He is young
enough to be her son, and she never swears at school, but you never
call a VP "my dear child!". They have been waging war ever since.

My mother has now taken stock of the other teachers because she is now
in the same bad position w.r.t. this VP as children in her class have
said to be in w.r.t. other teachers they used to have.

She thinks that teaching attracts more losers than any other profession.
people with timy egos go into teaching so that they can lord it over the
kids. They use their knowledge as power to make the kids feel small, so
that they can feel big in comparison. When they find a kid who is either
bright or merely resentful of this attitude, they try to squash him or her.

She thinks that there are a lot of people who are this insecure, but that
teaching attracts them like a moth to a flame. It sure matches my school
experiences, but then I was the collosal discipline problem who lived
in the office getting disciplined when I was not skipping school, so I thought
that I was hardly typical.

What do you remember? Does teaching attract this sort of yo-yo? And what
should we do if it does?

Laura Creighton
utzoo!utcsstat!laura