Take a Breath

 

It’s going to get worse.

Your perfect student is going to act out and disobey

and your worst student is going to push your patience to the very brink.

Someone will tweet something hurtful about your teaching style

 and plaster it all over the school.

Your favorite shirt will get a coffee stain during passing period.

Your students will fall asleep

after lunch in your class during your lesson that you worked hours on, with drool

spilling

out of their chewing gum infested mouth. Or your para

will remember that she has a dentist appointment

and leave you in the middle of the hour with seven special ed. Students who are acting up.

The other perfect student-

The one that texts a little too often- will forget all of their

work

And will freak out and cry and require you to calm him down putting you behind in your lesson.

No matter how many hours you prepare,

or how many tiny details you brace yourself for, you’ll lose track of time, the date, and the school assembly day.

If your troubled student comes in smelling of booze one day

You’ll come in to see one of your students putting cigarettes into his pocket

and is trying to sell it to other students because he never had the chance to see himself as something more

and probably won’t graduate.

There’s a Christian belief of a man who came into this world to teach and love.

When it came time for him to pay the ultimate price for his students

He did so without hesitation. But he was innocent in his

trial.

And he looks on at his students dividing up his clothes and casting lots for them.

At this point he notices a bowl full of vinegar and water.

He asks the guards crucifying him for a drink

They give him a sponge soaked in the mixture.

So here’s the view, the sun will set, some of your students will fail, you’ll get in a wreck, you won’y make enough money. You’ll lose loved ones.

Oh how sweet a teacher’s love is

so close to your heart.

 

Based on the poem Relax by Ellen Bass