I’d Like to Try to share a Kiss or Two with You

This love endeavor/don't have to last forever/

Courtesy of Alice Smith.

There isn't that much going on in these parts. Oh, Cornelius came by and hung out in the hospital room for a while. He brought me two TWO books to read. He brought me Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman and Twilight by somebody Meyer. Cornelius is a teacher and he lets his students choose the books they want to read (not revolutionary, but all the middle-aged teachers who thought their predecessors were nutjobs for allowing children self-determination are running scared. Essentially, as Cornelius and my Grandmother (a former college educator concluded) teachers are becoming obsolete.

I would ammend that: Good teachers are dynamic and always in demand. Mediocre teachers are obsolete and have been for as long as they have been in existence. They encourage young minds to give up early because hard work is, well, too hard. Teachers are not the only culprits, parents are equally guilty and one cannot assign too much blame to peers - of couirse kids want to get out of school/homeWORK etc. early, they don't see that one day they will be dreaded adults and need all those skills they skipped over in school, by their own volition or the ignorance of their parents, teachers and guardians.

A great teacher sets a student's soul aflame either with soft puffs of knowledge or rip-roaring flames of enthusiasm. A mediocre teacher is a wet towel in the rain. I've had the good fortune to have some fantastic teachers: Mrs. Edwards in the third grade appealed to my inner bottomless pit of a stomach by giving out free personal pan pizzas (Book It!) when a student read 6 books. I read six books in a week to get my weekly pizza and my total dedication to the joy of eating and reading let to my class winning the Book It prize for the school - a Free Pizza Party. That's a GREAT Teacher.

On the other hand, I had Ms. Sally Scudder in high school and she was a mediocre teacher with the political connections to get access to extremely bright students. She did give me a great quote. As she started our first class she said "Until this day you have dealth with challenges, not problems. I am going to introduce you to problems and many of them you will not be able to solve."

I thought that was brilliant. But she failed in her calling not because her subject matter was difficult, but because she allowed her own prejudices and emotional imbalances to exclude students who were not part of her and her family's social circle. She discriminated and thus became a mediocre teacher who had the potential of greatness. Oh well. I'm sure she's still surfing that trust fund and has squelched the nasty feeling inside of failure after permitting rampant racism, anti-semitism and classissm in her classroom.

Well, I think I shall lean back and delve into Twighlight...Happy Saturday Evenings.

~Camille the Bag Lady :)