Teaching
My
students always have the best intentions with notebook and journal
work, then as they get into it they let it slide. They don't mean to.
They all laugh at the story of past students sitting in their cars
outside my house frantically scribbling in their notebooks, then they
all do it, or something similar! I have tended to have 3 types of
students.
The
Juggler.
They tend to be a little late, but let you know because they
have 2 full time jobs and a family, a sick dog and another course
they are studying. These folks are organised, work hard when they are
there and respect what you do. However sometimes these guys just burn
out, break down or lose the plot. They can't help it, every juggler
drops something eventually. Yet sometimes they just pick everything up and start again.
The
Pooka.
They look perfect. They say the right things. Sometimes they
even do the right things. Yet sooner or later their real faces
appear. They want to please but more than that they want to be the
centre of everything. They tend to copy mannerism and behaviour.
Every outfit is a costume. Every gesture a dance. When they lose it,
it is because they are so frightened of themselves, of their ugliness
that they can't bear that someone has seen them.
Old
Kid Faithful.
They have something about them. They may have book
learning, or not. There is a grace to them. They don't always do the
work, and they can't always even tell you why. They were lost in some
dreams, or some art. Whether it be gardening or painting. You ask
them about something and sometimes they look at you blankly. Then a
little later they come out with the most moving and profound thing.
Then
of course there are those that are just unique. Those who like a
butterfly in a room just pass through.
Being a teacher as long as I have you would have thought I would have learned who was who by now, but I just let my heart guide me most often. This is wonderful but you never know until the mask slips who is who. Who is the Pooka and who is the Juggler?
All images are Wendy and Brian Frouds work.
I was reading through your descriptions and when I read The Pooka, I had to go "oh, that's my friend" she is absolutely so like that it's not even funny, it's as if you had met her and wrote a description of her to a tee.
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