Uncomfortable

I am so tired of the word uncomfortable. It is as ridiculous as life itself, which can be quite uncomfortable, by the way. Everyone these days is worried about everyone else being uncomfortable. Good grief, man, this is teaching. Get over your bad selves and suck it up. The big world outside our classroom walls does not care about you, gives you no reasoning sometimes, and will eventually destroy you. Does that make you uncomfortable? Then stop reading now.
At six-foot-ten, I have been uncomfortable my entire life. I don’t fit. I don’t fit in cars, planes, clothes, desks, chairs–anything that is designed for a regular person does not suit me. Imagine being on a roller coaster where the metal thing descends over you to hold you in. When I rode some stupid carnival ride, I was too tall for the metal thing to wrap over me and lock. It wrapped over me, but didn’t lock. The guy told me to bend my knees, which I did for the two-minute ride. I was lucky it didn’t kill me.
You can’t say anything, you can’t do anything. Everyone is worried about how others will feel. I talked about front-page news the other day when the Torrance High wrestling coach was found guilty of sexual molestation charges. I asked my students today what they thought about all the media that is focused against Trump, and why it’s happening three weeks before an election. That might be hard-hitting to the wimpy, but, really, it’s just a question. I also told them that the “boy talk” of grabbing women has never come up in my 54 years of living. Never have I heard a male boast in such a way. I have many female students this year–they should know that males just don’t say these things.
Images of war are horrible, but shouldn’t they be seen?
The statue of David has full-frontal nudity, but isn’t it art?
Justin Bieber’s music is horrific to me, but some people like it.
This is the stuff of warnings, of iconic books that should have resonated with people and sunk in and made us change our habits. If anything, we’re worse. Huxley took away obstacles in Brave New World and made everyone happy with sex and soma. Orwell took away history, and the individual, and the truth, and made Winston love the party and Big Brother in 1984. Ray Bradbury, in a book that people dismiss as science fiction, wrote about how the minority opinion will end up being a dangerous one in Fahrenheit 451. All of these books warn of the destruction of the individual, that a move against society is a bad one.
Today we had a late start. We talked about what we’re teaching and when. Sounds pretty good, since all the new moves are towards collaboration and being on the same page, so to speak. The books chosen by the district are good, have some rigor to them, and offer the teachers a chance to change up their routine a little. You would think that’s a good thing. Nope. Comfort zones must be met, and the past has worked before so let’s keep at it. Never mind that our school has changed, that the past does not exist, that we’re going for a new focus–I WANT MY MTV.
Some teachers at our school have “Thwart the Entitlement Era” on their doors. It starts with us, though. Yes, the old man who you think is done is telling you to change if you want to be the change, or expect kids to change. What happens when we just keep beating that same drum and nothing new comes out of us? Come gather ’round, people.
And go ahead and hate the following song, because it’s not the version that’s already in your brain.