Sometimes, on days like this, I think about my NYCTF training, and wonder, “Where are they now?”

I’m especially thinking about my pre-service training, where the most capricious and snobby kids weren’t in the classroom, but training to be teachers along with those of us who were more in it for the students themselves. I think back to what a horrible mess some of the classes were and wonder how I still stayed in the teaching profession.

I remember for one class, we started out auspiciously enough, working on projects and having friendly and contentious debate about pedagogy. Then, somewhere along the line, the students (who coincidentally came from the top schools like Harvard, et. al.) fancied themselves too good for their professor and began to deride his methods and become overtly condescending to a man who’s been in the system for almost 2 decades. While I understand that there’s always a need for a little change, you have to earn your wings to get to that man’s level, no matter how intelligent you think you are. Other students in the class took courage in disparaging this professor that he changed the format from one that was fun and real to one that was mundane and unchallenging.

With incidents like that, and a few more that I’ll have to get to next week, were sitting there, contemplating out loud who we thought would actually make it through their first year of teaching. While the prospects statistically didn’t look good for them, I’m still highly intrigued as to who made it and who didn’t.

Maybe here’s an essential question to think about, folks:

If you’re a snob, can you make it in inner-city teaching? And isn’t humility intrinsic in teachers? (Confidence is fine, but isn’t humility necessary or am I mistaken?)

Jose, who really is wondering what all those people are doing with themselves, and wonder if the kids tore them a new one when they got a new classroom …