The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

As far as I can see, there are three types of people we deal with on a daily basis. First, there are the good ones. The students are the ones that do all the things we ask of them and then even more. They study hard and make our jobs easy. The good teachers are the ones that help all students and help each other. They never judge anyone, just help and off criticism that is both helpful and asked for. Second, there are the bad ones. And I say bad students and bad teachers, not bad people because these people can be helped. The kids are not able to adjust to the one size fits all model of education. Given the right encouragement and the right environment even the bad students can become good ones. Even bad teachers can be taught to be good if they are willing. Lastly, we get to the ugly. I have never met ugly students but I have met many ugly administrators and teachers. These people have no tolerance for any students other than the ones that automatically fall into the good category. They have no tolerance of students whose learning and behavior are different from the norm. The administrators have no tolerance for the teachers who defy conventional means to help the bad students become good ones. They focus on minutia, like horse-shoe seating in a classroom and ties on male teachers. We need more of the good to help the bad and we need to do away with the ugly.