These Pretzels Are Making Me Thirsty

 

One of my favorite shows of all time is Seinfeld. Whenever I am bored and there is nothing on television, I will inevitably find the show on syndication somewhere and I will watch hours of it and recite lines as if I was auditioning for the show. The other night, I happened to turn on the show and "The Alternate Side" was on, which is the 11th episode of the 3rd season and really shows some fully developed characters. It is one of those episodes that has so many great scenes and one-liners that have become classics. One of those is, “These pretzels are making me thirsty!” As I continued to watch the episode, I began to think about that line in particular and how it was introduced. Kramer got cast in a Woody Allen movie and Jerry, Elaine, George asked him what his line was. Kramer responded, “These pretzels are making me thirsty” and immediately they all gave their perspective on how he should recite the line in the scene when it was being filmed. Each had a unique take on the delivery, but Kramer told them he didn’t like them and that they didn’t know how to act. This got me really thinking about teaching and learning in today’s schools.

As an educator, I can almost guarantee that whenever I tell someone what I do for a living, they will inevitably tell me about their experiences in school or the experiences that their children are going through. I love listening to these stories because everyone’s perspective is unique. Unfortunately, however, some of these conversations then drift into opinions on how schools should be run and how things should be taught in the classroom and they are coming from someone with no formal training in teaching and learning. In essence, they begin to tell me how to deliver the line, “These pretzels are making thirsty” as if they are the trained professional. As someone who accepts feedback on a regular basis, I listen to the thoughts and suggestions and I share with them some of the nuances of education that they may not know about that may provide them some background to help them become more informed. Sometimes it is accepted and sometimes it isn’t. We do this same thing as educators with our colleagues. We share our experiences in the classroom with others and we pass judgement on one another by telling ourselves that we would do things a different way if we found ourselves in a similar situation. 

The position of educator comes with a lot of sacrifices, including being told how to do our jobs by people with no experience in the classroom. This is part of the job, but we have two ways of looking at this. We can be frustrated and irritated that people are talking about things they know nothing about or we can embrace the fact that people are engaged and passionate about what we do, no matter how far off base they might be with their thoughts and opinions. At least we are a part of the conversation and that people care. As our titles indicated, it is our job to educate and inform. We need to teach people HOW to think and not WHAT to think. Teaching is the noblest of professions because it requires honesty, generosity, and courage. It requires us to not tell people that, “These pretzels are making me thirsty,” but rather, to hand them a drink and engage them in a conversation.

#OwnYourEpic #embrace