Let me tell you about this "noble" profession

"What nobler employment, or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation?" -Marcus Tullius Cicero

So far this morning, I, this woman of most noble employment, have argued over ear buds, argued over a breakfast list, been ignored, snapped at, and summarily dismissed. When I tried to correct a student's essay by telling him not to add spaces between paragraphs and indent each new paragraph, he informed me that he was doing it the way his resource teacher taught him. To which I informed him that I was the one grading his paper, not his resource teacher, and it needed to be done my way.

All in all, another stellar morning.

The only nice thing I can say about teenagers today is that when I asked two of them to take off their hats, they said yes, ma'am and actually did it.

I read everywhere that teachers need to be paid based on performance levels of students. Let me tell you about 14-year-olds. They are unreliable. They are lazy when it suits them. They are hard-working when it suits them. It's all well and good to design creative lessons to grab their attention. If they aren't feeling it, then that is that. Oh well. They are still in the self-centered level of moral development. I'm going to do what I want to do because I want to do it and it makes me happy. Period. End of story.

Yet, politicians want to make teachers more accountable for what they are teaching and doing in the classroom. Not a problem with me. Not at all. But if you want to hold me accountable for what I am doing in the classroom, come watch what I am doing in the classroom. You can't judge me based on a 60-question multiple choice test at the end of the year. My door is wide open to anyone who wants to come and watch me teach. My door is open to anyone who wants to evaluate me.

But if you are going to administer a test that judges my abilities, this morning I would fail. These children are grouchy.