Virtual Virtues in the Classroom

Wait a minute. Teachers aren’t particularly more patient people than the rest of us. That just doesn’t make sense. After all, they’re normal people, too, right? And yet, my children have never come home from school in all twenty one years (this includes college time) and complained that they were yelled to, hollered for, or screamed at.

But, but… I know my children! And, there are plenty of times when they are worthy of much more than basic shouts and loud commands as they aren’t always that cooperative or well-mannered. Yet, in public places, in other words, in a controlled environment, it seems that everyone (including my little heathens) somehow manages to maintain a certain degree of self-control. Whereas, in private, more relaxed settings, uncontrollable tempers surface as abruptly as a pot of boiling, hot water bubbling over.

Bear with me, my reckoning goes deeper than me simply stating the obvious. Indeed, I want to try an experiment. My goal is to quiet this place a notch and because the centuries old “stop yelling” order has yet to work on my children, then maybe I should stop yelling, “stop yelling” so much. If you happen to be reading this and you also happen to be a mother, then only you can readily admit how not easy this is going to be. 

So, here’s my solution…

I will pretend that I am a wise and widely admired and sought after Teacher inside my perfectly childproof and information appropriate, tidy classroom surrounded by the most wonderful and brightest students. Bestowed upon me is to provide them with the best education possible along with an abundance of pardons (for ye must turn the other cheek, especially when the milk spills a second time!) and tranquility for each one of these little eager faces staring up at me... watching my every move… learning, absorbing, and repeating the examples I have set (in stone, though nobody really highlights this unalterable truth, kind of like the worst joke ever passed down from every generation before, undermining your pride and progenies by allowing you the same chance to learn the hard way), all the while slowly and shamelessly becoming me. Ought me, then, be the best I possibly can for the long safekeeping of their precious bodies and creative minds?