I grew up in the harsh realities of North Central Kansas and one of the worst things one could be categorized as was a sissy. I grew up equating this epitaph as synonymous with being a “girl.” Then I ran into Sisyphus in Greek mythology and wondered if there was any connection. So let’s try to untangle the two a bit, because both are in my mind at the end of about one fourth of a school year.
I am feeling like a sissy these days because kids are getting harder to take. I think this is because of at least these several causes:
- I am getting older, so remembering “back in the day” is harder and more unreliable.
- Context is constantly changing, so my memories of being a teen are less contextually relevant.
- While I would like to say as I gain experience I become better prepared to deal with immaturity, I find instead I am just getting tired of patiently abiding kids as they grow up, especially as the context seems to be encouraging them to remain immature.
- Another, and the one I wish to develop a little bit here or later, is this notion of “standard.” Just what should a high school student be expected to bear? I perceive my “standard” to be harsher than what most people today feel it should be, so I constantly wondering if I should “lighten up” which causes that old feeling of guilt I associate with being a “sissy.” Sort of a wicked trap, is it not?
The Sisyphean aspect of this is the strong call for hope. Sisyphus knew every day when the sun arose that he had to push that rock up the hill, and that when it was done, it would roll back down. No hope of there being any other outcome. For years I have known that every year I am going to push my rock up the hill of a school year and at the end some of what I taught and did would be as useful as the rock rolling back to the bottom of the hill. That is human nature. We learn slowly. But my hope was that if enough other teachers, parents, and general impactors of society pushed rocks in the same way, the combined effort would provide the student with a better life. I think that is where I am starting to roll back down the hill of hope. Am I pushing in the same direction, or is the counter-cultural nature of my teaching just not relevant anymore? Why did I ever think it would be? What does it mean to be relevant in a post-Christian culture? Has not the relative view of truth made all things relevant and simultaneously meaningless?
All this to say that a society built upon not hurting anyone’s feelings is making me feel bad. I need to get over it and get to pushing this rock again. Maybe I will benefit from listening to Petty meditate on this idea.
HowdoUteach 