What About Teachers?

I am astounded to think that she would be that thoughtless, she said talking about a girl and the way she thought (or didn't think) about her grandmother.

They sat thinking about the girl and the grandmother who had recently passed away. Each had their own thoughts. Then he barked his out.

Kids today! They are thoughtless, all of them. They are rude, self-absorbed, loud, violent, and profane!

He didn't wait for a response.

Maybe it has always been this way. I remember a profane time I went thru when I was young. And I remember treating my aunts very badly and growling at my grandmother. I remember breaking an antique couch and trying to cover it up. So maybe I'm being a little harsh. Maybe it's not kids today. Maybe that is just the way they are.

He stood a while in uffish thought.

You'd know far better than I, he said, acknowledging that she was a teacher, that she knew kids, that she had perhaps some expertise in this area. And then he continued in another direction without missing a beat.

But I look around and see nothing that suggests we have anything in our culture that establishes any sort of models for behavior kids can return to when they begin to grow up. TV? Hah. Movies? Hah! Musicians? Right. Politicians? Don't make me laugh.

Parents. That's it. There are only parents. And many are too busy to spend time with their kids over the years. And many are criminally irresponsible. And many are rude, self-absorbed, loud, violent, and profane. And they drink to excess. And they buy lottery tickets.

Oh what a fine mood he was in that evening, dishing out his uninvited bitterness as she sat there listening.

Oh well, he quipped. I gotta go. I'm starving.

She sat there as he walked away, the echoes of his words ringing her ears -- or the echo of what he didn't say.

Role models? What about teachers after all: teachers who slave in the pits and work for the love of the backbreaking work. What about teachers who show up early with smiling faces and plans for the day and stay late preparing for the next.

What about teachers? she wanted to say, but he was already gone.

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