After an exercise on verb tenses in which a number of her students wrote (among other things) that the past participle of freeze is “froozen,” Jules the Crazy of Mildly Melancholy finds herself becoming increasingly frustrated with her class—and herself:
FINE, none of them are actually stupid or dumb. Gah, I know I can't say that and that I'm going to hell for even thinking it. I don't really believe they're idiots. Senseless goofs, some of them, yes. LOTS of them are really low level and that makes me very nervous, because I really don't know if anything I do helps.
She has to remind herself that “I’m not a bitter commie monster (ooh, great name for a blog!) who hates children or calls names,” but instead:
I'm a teacher who CARES about what the students are learning and who wants them to actually LEARN something, which requires them to pay attention, and me to work hard to monitor their progress.
