I have a student who is negotiating a path into my psyche beyond the history I am attempting to teach her and the rest of the class. So she "hangs around." Lots of students do this, this "hanging around". It's a kind of corollary to "dropping by" after school when I am either correcting papers, trying to find something on my desk, surfing Amazon.com or trying to get the heck out of the building. Recently, this girl opined, somewhat without pretext, or "randomly" as the kids themselves would say, that "Teachers, like chefs and artists are pirates."
Pirates?
In actual fact, I was flattered to be lumped into that group, particularly with regard to artists, as on positive self-esteem days, I fancy myself a sort of artist, both in and outside of the classrroom. But, pirates? I thought I knew what she meant, but wanted to hear (albeit briefly and succinctly) what this was supposed to mean.
I asked my ever-useful opened ended question, saying, "Really? How so?"
This gal rambled on about how teachers are really all kinds of people and that they don't go about their job in the same way as any other teacher. She also said that teachers don't always follow a "box-like" path to their profession like doctors or lawyers or accountants, a point I thought was kind of interesting. Pirates don't follow a box-like path either apparently. I mentally attempted to flesh out other aspects of this comparison, trying of course to make sure it came out in a positive way. Pirates sail the seven seas looking for treasure, yo ho ho-ing and carry cutlasses. Most of what I know about chefs is that they have famous moods and tempers (oh no, I thought, I can see where THIS is going) and any notions of them is based on stories my partner a former waitress tells me plus what I have seen on "Chopped" the TV show. They also sort of carry cutlasses. Artists are an interesting lot, and I have known quite a lot of these -- kids who turned into musicians, friends who were visual artists, writers, friends who are musicians. And yes, they really are all different people who did not follow a box-like path to being an artist.I know poets and photographers and painters. No cutlasses per se, but many of these people have interesting personalities. Well, truth be told, I am interested in people with interesting personalities, so maybe I look for them or focus on the details of people's personalities for my own amusement.
I found myself imaging the Pirates of the Caribbean flourish and color and majesty. I wouldn't mind being Johnny Depp, and he seems a sort of pirate in and out of character. I shuffled through the inventory of teachers at our school and SOME of them seemed like pirates, but the notion of the Pirates of the Carribbean style pirate (as opposed to the truly bad-guy Somalian pirates of the news) didn't always fit.
Like a lot of interactions with kids, you really have to seize the moment. I doubt we will return to the pirate theme, but I will look out for them at school.
