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Aesop still has something to tell us.

Almost every year a parent finds something wrong with a lesson, a book, an assignment or a grade. When I first started teaching, I thought it only happened to me. I couldn’t understand since I was trying so hard to do a good job for all my students.

Parents want the best for their kids. They want fairness.  Most parents only want to know why a teacher is doing what he or she is doing.  They may want to know how to help a student at home. I enjoy talking to parents. Very few of the parents are unreasonable in retrospect. Very few parents want me to bend the rules.  Early on to make sure I was knowledgeable in my decisions, I decided to continue my education in designing curriculum, researching pedagogy, and listening to and reading information from experts.

In every job, I am sure there are times when a person questions his or her decisions. This is when trust is important. Trust in experience. Trust in education. Trust in intuition. Trust in talent.  I then decide to follow the Aesop story of The Donkey, Man and the Child.

 

A man and his son were once going with their donkey to market. As they were walking along by his side a countryman passed them and said, “You fools, what is a donkey for but to ride upon?” So the man put the boy on the donkey, and they went on their way.

But soon they passed a group of men, one of whom said, “See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides.”

So the man ordered his boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn’t gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other, “Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor little son trudge along.”

Well, the man didn’t know what to do, but at last he took his boy up before him on the donkey. By this time they had come to the town, and the passersby began to jeer and point at them. The man stopped and asked what they were scoffing at.

The men said, “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor donkey of yours — you and your hulking son?”

The man and boy got off and tried to think what to do. They thought and they thought, until at last they cut down a pole, tied the donkey’s feet to it, and raised the pole and the donkey to their shoulders. They went along amid the laughter of all who met them until they came to a bridge, when the donkey, getting one of his feet loose, kicked out and caused the boy to drop his end of the pole. In the struggle the donkey fell over the bridge, and his forefeet being tied together, he was drowned.

Try to please everyone, and you will please no one.

 

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