The Elephant in the Classroom

So, the other day I was talking with Ashley towards the end of the class and mentioned she'd been absent a lot and asked if she had been ill. She said, "No, we've been getting the place ready for my parents. They're coming home." "Really?" I was a bit puzzled. "Yeah," she said, "I pick dad up from prison on Monday and mom on Wednesday."
This is but one of the things they don't cover in the education courses you take in college and is an example of the kinds of things in my book. To ignore the elephant in the classroom makes you less a teacher and just an instructor. It is also why the most important thing we can teach our kids is that learning is fun and they can do it. If we don't teach them that it doesn't matter what we teach.
"This is the portrait of a teacher." Bruce Knecht