The drawbacks

I'm a teacher.

Please skip forward to 5:40 in this video and avoid the part before that.



I love my job and very much love where I teach.

That being said, there certainly is a downside to being a teacher.

I can't listen to "Don't Stand So Close to Me" without thinking of the friend of mine - and coworker - who was falsly accused of some inappropriate behavior a few years back as well as the four or five teachers I've known who have ended up married to former students of theirs.

I can't watch The Breakfast Club because I spent my first couple of years at Mt. Healthy watching the Friday afternoon, three-hour detentions. Anymore, I feel every bit as much sympathy for the Principal Richard Vernon as I do for the kids trapped in that library.

I can't watch the movie Teachers - the source of the clip up top - even though a number of the moments throughout ring true - because there are so many scandalized, sensationalized portrayals of my profession that I find myself more bothered than entertained.

I can't watch Dangerous Minds because I don't care to see the story of the school year told in leaps and jumps, fits and starts. I need to know day by day how the nice white lady made the miraculous changes she supposedly made. Don't give me Bob Dylan is like Dylan Thomas, give me daily lesson plans and her adjustments to get the students on her side.



Oh, sure, I get the summers off and free access to the copying machine pretty much anytime I want it, but there will always be the drawbacks...