Here's a few more thoughts about all the teachers now going online, who are like "no, you have to have your camera on, and you have to be wearing the right kind of shoes, and no food, and ask permission to go to the bathroom" and all that.

A thread.

I did my first paid professional work as a technology trainer almost 30 years ago, teaching an angry and resentful aging field sales force to use laptops they didn't want to have, and email they didn't want to use.

I will never forget this one grizzled salesman, appx age 65...

...who was so angry about all of it that he fixed me with a steely gaze, lifted his mouse off the mousepad, and slowly went CLICK... CLICK, to prove that I was full of shit about double clicking being a thing.

He was shaking with rage. Shaking, and sweating.

And at first when I started reading these threads where teachers are like "no you have to do exactly this" I thought they were, you know, like me at 21, trying to teach that older salesguy to double click, and I was like, come on, keep your cool, teachers. It's the gig.

But.

The more of these threads I read, the more I realize: the teachers who are like "And you can't wear comfy clothes and you must sit up straight and respect my authoritay!" are actually that old salesguy.

There's almost a degree to which they want to prove this can't work.

I'm not saying it's necessarily conscious -- in fact I'm sure it largely isn't -- but they're just like that salesguy who'd been doing his job for decades and now, now he had to learn this doubleclicking BS from some snotnose kid, and why should he have to?

And I get it. It's HARD. I'm out here now, closer in age to that sales veteran than to when I was the snotnose technology trainer in the early 90s, and I've been working for years on adapting curricula I designed to online scenes, and pushing it hard the past few months, and...

...there are absolutely times when that struggle gets totally emotional for me.

And it's true: it's not the same teaching experience. It's not the same at all.

But I have a lot more sympathy for a struggling salesguy than a struggling teacher, and "why" may not be popular.

But if you're a teacher, I fervently believe, you have to stay closely in touch with being a learner, even as that context shifts around you, because it cannot help but do so.

Every single student is different. Every class is different. Every group is different.

Even the classes I've taught hundreds and hundreds of times, they've never been the same class twice. Even when I have full control of the curriculum there are things that can't be controlled.

And if you can't roll with that, if you can't engage on those terms... well, then...

...frankly, you may be knowledgeable in your field, but you're not that hot shit as a teacher.

No teacher is going to be all things to all people; no teacher is going to be the right fit for every student. There will always be logistical and class management challenges.

But.

The first thing about teaching, maybe the ONLY thing about teaching, is that it's about reaching the learner. It's not about their obedience. It's not about how neat the rows of desks are. It's not about the checklists.

It's about reaching the learner.

That's it.

Also, a point: this thread is in the vein of when you say "Because I'm the parent! That's why!"

You don't say that because you think the kid forgot.

You say that because YOU'RE about to forget what YOUR job is.