A Frustrated And Fatigued High School Teacher.

It's the fourth period: just lunch then two more to go before you can head home and crawl gratefully into your bed at the tube hotel to watch your new DVD of "私を優しく愛してくださいマダム・触手!"...

The students, as usual, are not paying much attention to what you are trying to teach them. Half the class is texting, and another third are pretending to pay attention, while actually making eyes at each other or doodling in their textbooks. But, right in the front row, sit the four students that you actually are teaching this class to, two boys and two girls, each of which you are confident will actually LEARN what you're trying to teach.

The life of a high school teacher is not especially glamorous, and the pay is lousy, but you don't care about that: you're not here for the slackers goofing off in the back, you are here for these four students, and the two to five like them in each of your six periods: the ones that HUNGER for knowledge, that NEED it like a drowning man needs air! They are why you became a teacher, and why you stay one.

By your nature, you are a pedagogue: stiff, formal, and oftentimes pedantic. You try to curb that last tendency but it's hard to avoid: because for you the formalities and details of a situation are FASCINATING! More than any of this however you take immense joy in two things: 1: learning for learning's sake, 2: passing on what you have learned. These four students in front of you understand this drive: when they call you 'Sensei' they do it with the same reverence that your typical student would show a Karate instructor. They know that it will take them decades of study to reach the level you have: and you can help them get there faster than they otherwise would... Honestly, if all of Civilization were to collapse, (if only you knew right now what you will a few hours from now...) you would still be a teacher by profession: you would just get to be a lot more selective about your students...