So I'm thinking about what I want to keep & what I want to change for the classes I have next semester. I'm working on an assessment in which the students choose the character from the stories and poems we read that they feel is most like themselves.
And I started thinking about which characters I tend to identify with. Now, granted, I'm not exactly at the peak of human physical ability, and my parents weren't murdered in front of me when I was six. Nor am I ridiculously independently wealthy.
And maaaybe my classroom isn't exactly "a wretched hive of scum and villainy" (to confuse the allusion a bit), but there is definitely the sense that I am fighting a losing battle against the creeping threat of idiocy, ignorance, and slackitude.
Yet, like my hero, I somehow can't let go and give up the fight. (Okay, maybe it's a bit over the top to say that when I've been teaching all of THREE YEARS so far.)
Sometimes it feels like I'm out there on the mean streets all alone. ESPECIALLY during Journalism, when everything needs my attention at the same time! Even the greatest martial artist in the world would have difficulty juggling the simultaneous demands of yearbook, newspaper, and teen angst, pitched at him from all sides.
Fortunately, we both have people who fix us up when we've been through a grueling day. I think I've got one up on Batman here: I get hugs and kisses and backrubs and cuddles and stuff. And as dedicated as Alfred is, that's not something I can picture!
However, Batman is the only one nuts enough to do what he does. I - am not. At least to some degree, I am expendable. If I just up and quit my job, there would be someone else (probably many someones) who would be able to take my place.
Some of them might even be better at it than I am!
Even so, to some degree I still feel that what I do is important and necessary. And so night after night, day after day, Batman and I go 'once more unto the breach,' to fight for the world we hate to love.
Images thanks to http://people.ucsc.edu/~jkli/ and http://www.berlinwallpaper.com/Murals/York_HP
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3 comments:
The best way to get around the everyone needing something at the same time janx is to put the kids in charge of the newspaper. Yes, you're still The Boss, but they must deal with all the tiny little troubles that tend to gnaw we advisers to shreds. And I really think my classroom IS a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Perhaps I shall blog about that soon! a wretched hive of scum and villainy
I think "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy" is in reference to Mos Eisley Spaceport from Star Wars.
I believe the Batman-related analogy you are looking for is that school children "are a cowardly and superstitious lot..."
Hope that helps.
;)
No, I know I got my references mixed. I just think "scum and villainy" comes a bit closer to the right FEEL than "a cowardly and superstitious lot."
If it was "a deceptive, selfish, and arrogantly entitled lot," that'd be just about right, though. ;D
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