Benevolent Quotations

Adults want comfort, but expect students to go into [the] discomfort zone.  Are we hypocrites?  from Vinnie Vrotny - Blog post    Multi-faceted Refractions I live with the thought that I am a hypocrite.  I am a teacher almost every day I implore, cajole, push, and pull students to learn more about the immediate subject and themselves.  And yet I feel guilty when I don't do the same thing. To find today's quote, I Googled "quotes teacher hypocrisy" and got no love.  I got quotes from Don King, Malcom X, Alan Dershowitz (black pot) and others.  But no listed, no famous quotes about teachers and hypocrisy.   Then I Googled "teacher hypocrisy" and oh boy, were there hits!.   Grass roots education ;  Condor Voice ; I, Hypocrite Teache r; and today's quote were just a start.   I realized that I am not alone.   I must admit I also hate lazy teachers.  They...

Every person needs to take one day away.  A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future.  Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence.  Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.  Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.  Maya Angelou from Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now Today is my one day off from work.  It has been so crazy there that I didn't do my normal practice and plan something to do on my "weekend," something to look forward to doing.  A reward is missing.  So I am puttering around the house.  Maybe make dinner - no, I'd need to go shopping.  Maybe start a new project - no, not enough energy.  Oh crap:  I need to iron.  Okay - at least that is productive.  I haven'...

You do not have to be good.  You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. Exert from Wild Geese, a poem by Mary Oliver . I am not a fan of poetry.  I understand that this is a section of literature that I have cut off. I read many other types of writing but, in general, not poetry.  Maybe it has to do with the ham-handed way I was taught ("Obviously the albatross is a symbol of guilt/bad luck/good luck/penance."  Argh - Just pick one.  Or better yet, why a rotting relative of a rooster?). Now, as a teacher, I know that I shouldn't just blame the teacher for my lack of appreciation.  I was that person who had to have explained to him the "glass half empty/glass half full" concept.  ( But Alison, both are 50%!) Back to the present task at hand. Mary Oliver died recently and the reporting came over my newsfeeds.  So I read a poem or two.  And maybe I'll read more.  I don't know....