teachers confessions
How school really is
When I did my legal clerkship about 15 years ago, my instructor gave me advice: "If you buy bread from a bakery, you have to see that you are a teacher!" Apparently he was not satisfied with my rather shy appearance so far. That sentence offended me at the time, but above all I did not find it worth striving to be recognized as a teacher immediately - possibly even by fulfilling all clichés.
I had no intention of buying Birkenstocks just to get bread. Cord jackets never stood before me and a full beard itches terribly. Also, even though I've read hundreds of books, I still don't wear glasses. In fact, I managed not to look like a teacher for 15 years. People kept saying to me: "Are you a teacher? I wouldn't have thought that now" - and that was meant as a compliment.
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Well, sometimes I pointed out to a teenager on the bus to stand up for an old lady. And when other parents advise their children: "Get back!" I tend to say to my children: "Give the others something too!" or "Take care of the weak!" I'm an educator and I can't get out of my skin.
I even interfered in a conflict between strange children at a bus stop and was able to successfully settle the dispute. I made a boy do it to collect garbage.
And yes, of course I already fulfill one or the other prejudice that one has about teachers. For example, that many teachers are eco and pay attention to healthy eating. Okay, we have whole grains, organic food and vegetable quiche at home. But who does not pay attention to their diet beyond the 30th birthday and still stays in shape?
I also admit that every time I go to the cinema with my family, there are arguments because I want to educate the children to be critical consumers, but everyone wants to pour uncontrollably sugar-coated popcorn and oversized soft drinks. And then these disappointed faces on Halloween when the children were only allowed to weigh 200 grams of their candy yield.
Well, maybe I'm more of a teacher than I thought, but at least I've never been looked at immediately. Til today. I was on my way home on my bike at a railroad barrier, without a helmet, in jeans, a laptop bag over my shoulder. To my left are a girl and a boy of about twelve.
I keep an eye out for the train, brushing the girl's gaze. I have never seen it, definitely not a student at my school. And then, like a stab in my heart, it comes out of her mouth: "Are you a teacher?"
I admit it completely perplexed and ask for security if she goes to my school, but as suspected this is not the case. Suddenly the rail barrier goes up - and what does the boy do? He clings to the barrier, which bends suspiciously when it is lifted into the air. He rocks, the barrier threatens to break!
At that moment it became clear to me that I was not only recognized as a teacher, but also did not inspire respect in any way, and even invited people to mess around. And as I pluck the boy off the barrier, I make an important decision: I will definitely not go to the bakery tomorrow!
