Adios, Cinderella

I read Barbara Hamby's poem "Achtung, My Princess, Good Night" today, and thought it didn't inspire.  But very quickly I found it did.  I hope that this does not come across as teachers as superhuman.  That is not my intention at all, and was not in my thoughts.

This made me think of how 

teaching gets glamorized in

unreal ways.  Just recently

I read about this young black

man who had been a drug

dealer but somehow he became

a fourth grade teacher and felt he

was "living a fairy tale" in

August, but by May he was 

quitting and going to law school.

He was held up as a model

of what is wrong in education,

that a young drug dealer can't

hack it. It infuriated me,

mostly because of the fairy

tale. No one made note of the 

fact that he had unreal expectations, 

or that it's the students who lose

in these situations. I once heard a

first year teacher say she thought she

was going to be Michelle Pfeiffer. She only

lasted until February. This is tough work and

it isn't a fairy tale or a movie, it's

real life with real children

and families and social

implications and political wildfire.

Stand in that fire, but don't let

it burn you, that's the maneuver

teachers learn, the skill needed for longevity.

And yes, in time inhaling that

smoke may get exhausting, but at 

least you lived the truth.

At least you didn't think you were Cinderella.