All I can control is myself and just keep having a positive attitude (Rose Namajunas)

Students often ask me, "Who's your favourite student, sir?" and I truthfully answer, "That's like asking who's my favourite child?"

I don't have favourites - a student preferred to all other students, or a favourite child.

Of course, I do have students I like more than others. Those tend to be the ones who do their best to get better in class and outside of class; the ones who listen and act on advice; the ones who learn from the Pirate Code.

Of course, the corollary to this is that there are students I like less than others. Only natural. Those tend to be the ones who have to learn the hard way, who are really immature, who compromise the learner of others, and who don't learn from the Pirate Code.

That's different to having someone I favour above all others. Having a favourite implies favouritism - giving unfair preferential treatment to one person or group at the expense of another.

That would be troubling, and against my own Pirate Code. I aim to do the right thing, now, and teach all students to the best of my ability. Every day.

Have a vision. Be demanding (Colin Powell)

Photo by Anastasia Petrova on Unsplash

Much as Marcus Aurelius does in Meditations, I think Colin Powell is talking to himself here.

So - I take it that he is telling himself to have a vision and to be demanding. Demanding of himself.

Teachers get this. We have a vision. We demand a lot of ourselves. Every day.

That's partly why it's such a rewarding/ exhausting job.

Poetry is a form of display

Photo by ricardo frantz on Unsplash

Poetry is a form of display. The poet bird repeats vowels and consonants in order to widen his tail. Meter and counted syllables make up a peacock tail. The poem is a dance done for some being in the other world.

Robert Bly

You've got the power to know, you're indestructible, always believing, you are gold (Spandau Ballet)

Photo by Petr Vyšohlíd on Unsplash

This will come as no surprise to any teachers out there in the blogosphere, but the golden moments in teaching are rare.

Mostly teaching is hard work. Dealing with teenagers' motivation levels all day long, as I do, is hard work. Dealing with administrivia is hard work.

Not all the time, but most of the time.

That makes those breakthrough, golden moments all the sweeter.

As Robert Bly says in Iron John:

Sometimes the mentor or teacher, sitting with a student, slips into soul water and the tongue turns to gold.

Those are the moments that keep us going.