There is a line, a mile wide razor’s edge, ‘tween academics and life experiences. I teach there with humor and homework … teaching to the emotions, passions, and confusions of teenagers in crisis ... notta professor, preacher nor gnome but a special educator, a teacher.

On the lighter side … home at 3:30, 188 or so days of work, and summers optional. Not a bad gig most of the time.

‘I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my personal approach that creates the climate. It's my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess tremendous power to make a student's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a student humanized or de-humanized.’

Hiam Ginott