Educating Esmé: Diary of a Teacher's First Year

So much of teaching is sharing. Learning results in sharing, sharing results in change, change is learning. The only other job with so much sharing is parenting. That's probably why the two are so often confused.

Sometimes a little song is sweet to hear, even if the orchestra is more accomplished

Why do these dumb fucks keep guns around the house? They make the world as ruinous as they imagine it is.

The goal is not necessarily to succeed but to keep trying, to be the kind of person who has ideas and see them through. We’ll

Today so many creative and devoted teachers not only have to struggle against unimaginative administrations, fearful parents, and wearied colleagues, they have also to battle entire legislative bodies that have never taught a child yet dare to equate educational success or failure with the ability of fourth graders to choose one out of four given answers to mind-numbing questions that have nothing to do with the joy of literature or the elegance of math.

We do not argue about what happened in the past but discuss what we desire for the future.

Nobody really knows which is happening when the teacher closes the door. At worst, mediocrity. At best, miracles.

So much of teaching is sharing. Learning results in sharing, sharing results in change, change is learning.

I suppose an active imagination can be a form of madness. Or it can be the thing that keeps you from going mad.

Mr. Turner gets mad when I say, “I don’t work for you, I work for the children.” But it’s true. Isn’t it? I’ll find out when I get fired, I guess.

For the rest of the day I was glad I listened instead of yelled, but I still burned with shame at the thought of what I almost said and at all the occasions I have spoken harshly.