Day: November 5, 2018

It is a generous understatement to say that I am absolutely underwater in terms of grading and planning. In truth, I’ve drowned, died, and become a coral reef. Still, the work has to get done before the end of the semester. How? That truly remains to be seen. I think that being so behind is near the heart of why I haven’t been writing. I can translate a lot of my emotional turmoil to the page. Writing is cathartic; grading is not. 

Some Thoughts:

1. My youngest is on a new football team and it was interesting and exciting to see how quickly he gave that team hope. He scored all four of their touchdowns against what was the top team in the league. His team lost but his scoring has since dropped that other team to the #2 seed, all but guaranteeing a first round playoff rematch. There is a good chance his team’s offense and defense undergo a remake prior to the rematch and the changes proposed means they have an excellent shot at winning the rematch. 
2. My mid kid is having a great time on his squad but it seems they have no chance of making the playoffs and extending their season. Unfortunate. It leaves me with a tough choice on what game to watch for the final week of the season, as both play at the same time. Sadly, one is a road game and the younger is a home game, so it is more of a problem to leave him at home than it is for the older. A lot to consider there…

So, first watch this. Now read this. And this. Now I will say that this is one of the instances where FOX provides a more measured coverage than CNN. I see this on occasion when the subject matter is ripe to be sensationalized. Remember the missing flight MH370? What I really want to talk about, however, is the situation itself. Strip away the interpretations provided by the various news outlets and what you are left with is a teacher who takes a swing at a student and a student who actively tries to provoke a teacher into a violent confrontation. That narrative is best told by this article. However, what we don’t know is what will happen next for both parties nor what are the particular social histories that led to this happening in the first place.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. We live in a country where being a teacher is seen as a ‘less than’ profession. It is more prestigious to become a nurse than to educate our youth. I personally believe that this is the ‘fault’ of the media given the high number of TV shows glorifying the medical field and the relative anonymity of teaching. In truth teaching is usually associated with negative feelings while nurses ‘save lives’. This is not a knock on nursing, but a point of comparison both salary and socio-professional street cred-wise of jobs that have a secondary layer. Teachers can also be College Professors. Nurses can become Doctors. When there is that layer of elevation I would argue that the so-called entry layer tends to be seen in a lesser light than the upper echelon achievement. In this particular case, being a teacher is not seen in any positive light. Because people hate school to begin with. They hate hospitals too, making both work environments places people do not want to end up. 

Back to the punch.

The dude punches the kid after a great deal of provocation. He is expected, as a teacher, to do anything else but what he did. Yet he decided to fall back into stereotypical masculinity and throw a punch. Once the punch was thrown he had sank to the kid’s level. Personally, I am glad the kid got his ass beat. As I said earlier, people lack respect for teachers in our culture. Unfortunately, this is not likely to engender any more respect.