Believe it or not, not every day in the classroom is a bastion of inspiration and exhilaration for a teacher. It’s true. There are those days where the students and the teacher look at one another, and the same thought is running through all their heads, “I can think of at least 100 other places I’d rather be.”
The difference between teacher and students is that the teacher still has to fake it. I have to smile and reach into the depths of my being is search of reserves of energy to pour into today’s lesson. The students, on the other hand, can sit there, stare back at me with empty eyes, and ask inane questions like, “Why do we have to read Shakespeare?”
Although this charade can drain my soul of its very last drop of verve, it can also trick my mind into believing the lie. The irony is that if I can trick my mind into believing that today’s classroom experience carries excitement and pith, it is no longer a lie. Yep. I have that much control. It doesn’t matter whether my students ever buy into it. It becomes the truth, and they can choose to benefit from it or not.
I did see a couple of students paying attention and nodding today. Either they were believing it, or they too were faking it. Days like today, I’ll take either. If they pretend long enough that they enjoy Shakespeare, they may actually talk themselves into it.
1 comment:
Mhm! Yeah! Right!
I had the quintessetial American Shakespeare teacher during college. He was close friends with the Royal Shakespearian actors, and brought them to campus. They were outstanding. I completely blew this opportunity because I just wanted to get stoned all the time. One of my biggest college day regrets. I think he is dead now.
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