Zen and the Art of Teaching

Teachers are mocked: Bad Teacher, The Substitute, and Summer School, even Ferris Buellers’ Day Off depicted teachers as slow and out-of-touch. Filmatic teachers’ speak in monotone voices or screaming echoes. Hardly ever, are they portrayed as “real people.” We are real people actually with real families and real problems, and real personalities.  If ever we get a glimpse of a realistic educator their circumstances concern inner city gangs or minority racism. Which of course are great stories of diversity and strength but hardly indicative of most teachers.  I have worked at three schools in my ten years of teaching, all of them different, all of them unique. Each one of them changing me as a person and teacher. Each one setting the ground work for me to become the teacher I am today. I didn’t work in East L.A. or the Bronx, or even Detroit.  My students were challenging, funny, frustrating, demanding, and rebellious.  But also, my students were inspiring, humbling, and remarkable. This is why the politics of teaching, the gossip, back-stabbing of faculty, and discouragement of administration can be overcome. This is why I am a teacher.