I have recently discovered that I am cool. This is not a first for me; I was cool in the sixth grade when I had the good fortune of being--among the seven boys in my grade--neither that crazy sociopath kid who talked to trees nor the fat kid (who was, you know, fat). In seventh grade, there was an influx of students, and I became very instantly uncool. By high school, I was pretty tight with the fat kid, that Marilyn Manson kid that everyone else was almost too scared of to pick on (except not really at all), and all the other dorks and misfits who picked theater over sports for after-school activities.
I mean, I've always been cool, from my fourth grade school picture in my Harley Davidson t-shirt to my years in New York City playing rock star to empty venues on Friday nights. I'm, like, a totally rock 'n' roll, non-comformist, anti-establishment, heavy-metal-punk-rock-Bruce-Springsteen-and-Black-Sabbath dude, y'know? It's just that I'm SO cool that for most of my life I've been the only person cool enough to see how cool I am, see? Lightyears ahead of the curve and such.
Anyway, I've been observing/student teaching once a week at JHS all semester, where my host teacher leads a journalism class. I do not know what I have done or said in that class, aside from having a giant beard, but those kids have decided that Mr. Beard is THE COOLEST! Sounds awesome, right? Don't all teachers want to be the cool teacher, like that suave motherf**ker in that crappy Rose McGowan horror flick that was on TV the other day--that dude was helping young damsels-in-distress with their lockers, beating flunkies in half-court for the wager of an A in his class ("I believe you owe me an A."), making out with his smokin' hot girlfriend in front of students, and then--and THEN--he was like, "Call me Pete." Now that is cool. Who doesn't want to be that teacher?
I don't. That guy was a douche, every aspect of his behavior was inappropriate and should have been grounds for firing, and by trying to be a peer instead of an elder he completely undermined his own authority. Good thing he was a good basketball player, I guess, or he might have had some classroom management issues.
Well, I'm 5'3" in my teacher shoes, and I don't shoot hoops. I'm glad kids like me and think they can relate to me (they seem to value my opinion, and that's certainly a plus), but it's like they're so convinced I'm cool that they forget I'm a teacher. One of them actually started to say something really crass about my host teacher right in front of me! Look, if a kid is dissatisfied with the way he's being taught, I do want to hear about that. I can learn from that. But how did I let that interest get mistaken for, "Hey, I'm the cooool teacher. You can talk crap about your other teachers in front of me. Don't worry, I'm coooool."
You know what happens when you forget your place because you're too busy trying to be cool? You become Michael Scott from The Office. I don't want to be the Michael Scott of teachers. Sure, I want the kids to like me, but not because they think I'm like a kid or I'm on their level; because I give them the chance to come up to my level and behave like and be treated like adults.
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3 comments:
All I know is that I definitly don't want to be called Ms. Beard....even Ms. Mustache would definitly place me far away from the land of "Cool" but that's for some obvious reasons that you will never have to contend with. I agree with you on the Michael Scott thing...and I think from this point on that is exactly how I'm going to refer to those kinds of people. The people who try a little too hard. I actually had those teachers in 8th grade. They were in their first few years of teaching, and in pandering to the very small percentage of "popular girls" (I have to put that in quotes because it was a class of 17 students total and we were all very clique-y and mean) anyway, in pandering to them and pulling them aside for their specific opinions, they alienated the rest of the not so cool kids. I don't know any class that thinks as a total "unit" despite the totalizing influence of peer pressure, and the only way to ensure that any given class is going to respect you (and hopefully like you) is to do exactly what you said, bring them up to you.
Two things:
1. I was doing my observation two weeks ago and one of the girls in the class struck up a non Hamlet related conversation. I am all about getting to know my students, but when it is time to focus, it is just flat out time to focus. Anywho, not to be overly stereotypical, she is the blonde cheerleader... not just the blonde cheerleader type, but LITERALLY she is the blonde cheerleader captain. And while my host teacher is standing right there she asks me, "Are you going to the TKE party this weekend?"
I was very taken aback. What business does she have knowing about and going to a frat party that I DONT EVEN KNOW ABOUT OR PLAN TO GO TO! SHE IS IN HIGH SCHOOL (read: JAILBAIT!) But I was also stuck wondering how I had gone from the teacher just trying to make myself available and accessible to the students to the teacher that they may possibly be partying with? I was so embarassed because my host teacher was right there and I didn't want her to think that I condoned this type of conversation. I think there is a fine line between being cool and being respected, and being too cool and disrespected. Oh well.
2. I started reading THE WARRIOR HEIR, and so far I really like it. I was wondering what your thoughts were on it? Did you ever finish it?
God, I'm totally with you on that being cool but no one else knows it yet. Man, if only the kids at school knew how cool I was they'd be beating each other with meat tenderizors to befriend me.
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