Those who can't, shouldn't

The ability to teach, I think, it innate. You either have it or you don't. Sure, anyone can teach anyone to do anything, but the ability to stand in a classroom day in and day out and give our students the knowledge they need for the next grade up or to enter into the real world is a gift. Fortunately, that gift runs in the Sherbine blood and it runs strong. Both of my parents are world-class educators, as many people will attest to. My older brother taught briefly after graduate school and my youngest sister is a teacher at an excellent elementary school over in West Ashley. She works hard and has earned every bit of respect and admiration her colleagues and students have for her. Recently, she took on a student teacher from the same C of C program she came up through several years ago. What looked to be a promising collusion almost immediately turned to disaster when the grad student quickly demonstrated her inability to grasp any concept related to classroom teaching and more than once showed difficulty mastering basic spelling and grammar. What's tragic is that even though Kortney has bent over backwards to help this woman, the student teacher's ineptitude has become insurmountable and she has begun to realize it. And in realizing this sad truth, she has begun to lash out and blame her inability to succeed on her mentor teacher. This acting out has taken the form of posting crude references about Kortney on the boyfriend's blog and hoping that the world wide web hadn't made its way to Yates Avenue yet. When a dog is backed into a corner and knows it has nowhere to go, it tries everything it can think of to stay in the game. Unfortunately for this young woman, teaching does not seem to be her calling and she should be grateful that Kortney has the insight and professionalism to handle the situation the way she did. Teaching isn't for everyone and that's the hard truth sometimes. Maybe this woman would be better suited hosting tables at the Olive Garden or something.
I caved in and let Evelyn sleep with me last night. She's a whiner and it grates on my last nerve sometimes, especially when I've had a long day and just want some peace and quiet. I don't know what happened the first several months of her life to make her that way, but whoever neglected her in that way really screwed me. So, to keep her quiet and so I could get some rest and hopefully stave off more whining in the future, I let her up with me on the bed when I went to sleep. She took several minutes to get herself situated before finally laying motionless and drifting off. And then she stayed still and quiet this morning during the alarm and the subsequent snooze periods afterwards, only getting down when it was time to go outside. Last night was a success so we'll see how it works out going forward. Ideally, she could have the run of the house after Kortney went to bed so I could work on the computer at my desk in peace, but I'm constantly worried about her wetting the floor and making noise while Kort's trying to sleep. Baby steps, Kevan. We'll get there.
Nothing else new going on. Work is blah, but that's to be expected. I try to keep my nose clear of the office politics, but sometimes I find myself right in the middle of the mix without even knowing it. Fortunately, I have enough self-restraint to most of the time nod my head and put on a fake smile. But if people knew what was running through my mind most of the time...
Tomorrow is my grandmother's 89th birthday. This would be my mom's mom, the feisty little woman who walked herself two busy Folly Beach streets to the beach over Christmas without any of us knowing about it. Yikes. Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRANDMA!!! :)