Tea at Trianon: These Are NOT Teachers!

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, June 9, 2024

These Are NOT Teachers!

From Jan Greenhawk at The Easton Gazette:

When I began teaching, it was a different time. Not only were female teachers expected to wear nylons if they wore a dress, but all male teachers were required to wear a tie. We were expected to be professional in our approach to both students and parents. And we were expected to teach academics.

We were also expected to keep our personal lives out of the classroom for the most part. Sure, kids knew if we were married and had children or were single. They knew the details about our lives that anyone could find out without trying hard. We were told not to go out to bars where our students and/or their families might be. No one wanted drunk teachers making fools of themselves in public where kids and parents could see.

If you talked about your sex life in class you probably wouldn't last very long.

We were also instructed NOT to let our political beliefs bleed into classroom instruction. One assistant superintendent said, " No political bumper stickers on your cars." Meanwhile his truck had a huge sign in the back for a county council candidate who was elected and then, strangely, worked for the school system.

But I made a point of being non-partisan. I listened to students give their opinions without judgement or imposition of my views on them. It was hard to do sometimes because teenagers don't always know what they don't know. We were serious about our jobs and felt that it was a sacred trust given to us to give children the skills they needed to be successful.

My, how times have changed. Not only do teachers share their personal information, but they have this driving need to be "affirmed" by their students. (Read more.)