The Life of the Teacher

The Life of the Teacher

Scatterbrained and full of noise,
They come into my class.
“Where’s your binder and your notes,”
I’m almost afraid to ask.
“You’re ten minutes late,
Where have you been?”
I adamantly demand from them.
So they let loose
And with sad, sad faces
Told me their excuse

“Well, we didn’t hear the bell ring.
And my dog ate all of my homework.
That project would have been complete
If American Idol had just repeat
And this silence that were breaking
Is social skills were making
So you wouldn’t want us to act contrite
And stop misbehavin’ here, right?

Well I ignored their desperate pleas
For they and I did disagree.
In their minds they would feel just
But lesson starting is a must.
With that the class did commence
That at least was the plan.
But twenty-five minutes of fire stopping
Had shortened their attention span.

Johnny, Johnny don’t eat that.
And Sally stop being mean to Matt.
I suppose it would all be fine,
If I wasn’t talking to grade nine.
Grades ten and eleven I have to hush,
Because when the start they all just gush.
But with grade twelve, I swear its worse
For getting good behavior, I must coerce.

As the lesson began disintegrate,
I desperately tried to reiterate.
But they would have none of that.
Their attitude toward me did combat.
With minutes left for them to leave
I feel the noose begin to lift,
When the bell rings this time around,
I think its me whose gonna quit.

Yes, you heard me straight I’m going home alright
And I’m slamming this darn door.
I’m not coming back, yeah right,
For this abuse anymore.
And when I leave this place
You’ll see my face No more…
Well…. Until work begins tomorrow

And I walk back through the door.
Now I know those kids aren’t too bad
Even though their graded work is a little sad
And I love them all to pieces,
I just gotta smooth over all their jagged creases.

By Greg Butz

10-30-08