Thanks for sharing your opinion with me. Interestingly, I was required to attend new teacher orientation because I took a job in another county system this year. We spent two hours being warned about things not to do. The surprising thing is that the county attorney who warned us had an example in mind where the event had actually happened; things such as vulgar notes written to students, having sex with students etc. Teachers who do things like that give the rest of us a bad name, and cause us a lot of anxiety.
NO ONE resents them more than me!!!!!!! Teachers who do things like that give fodder to those who blame teachers for the ills of society (the education is bad crowd) and encourage those who seek to create a climate of disrespect towards teachers and other public and nonpublic figures.
Here's another story. I rode tne bus and walked pretty much everywhere for over a decade. On my way to school, the bus driver commented to me on how courteous the students were to her from a certain high school. I challenged her to go to the principal and tell him. She did just that and he was flabbergasted. It was the first time he said that anyone had come to him about something positive. They even put it in the school newspaper. I think that we do need to acknowledge and deal with the bad, but we also need to seek out and acknowledge the good as well. If all we focus on is the negative in life, it doesn't reflect well on us as a group or individuals.
I get d--- lucky that there are a few parents who not only let me know when I mess up, but when I do something "good." It helps me to try to become a better teacher and person. We have been in school two weeks. I have a student who's been through some rough times and now he's being raised by his grandparents. He came up to me this week, gave me a big hug, and said, "You're the best teacher ever." I called up his grandma and said, "Either he's doing it because he likes me or he knows he's found my soft spot." The grandma said it was the first case and that, "He just adores you. He has a big heart and shows it to the people he appreciates." Talk about bringing tears to my eyes. There's a reason I teach and things like this are why I do and why I keep going.