I tell my students that one of the things I hate most in the world is standing in front of people and talking. This is true. Then, they laugh and point out that being a teacher means I stand and talk in front of people every day. This is also true.
However, actively teaching to an engaged young audience is starkly different than presenting a dry and untested dog-and-pony show to tired and harried adults on a mid-week night of torrential downpours.
You see, all of us, parents and teachers included, wish to be somewhere, anywhere, else.
The beauty of Back-to-School Night is that I don't have too many more of these. I'm old and have done this already almost thirty times. The sad part is that many of these parents I see now include former students. While that is a surreal experience, it is also a blatant reminder that I am rapidly becoming a relic.
When I do retire, I just might return for Back-to-School night, sit in on my former teammates, and enjoy being out of the hot seat for a change. On second thought, maybe I won't. After all, no one truly wants to be here. We may want the experience of it, to be able to say to the students that we enjoyed meeting parents and that parents enjoyed meeting us. The reality is that we all just want to get home to dinner and showers. Perhaps we can just record ourselves (you know -- like the old-school Covid days) and send these home for parents to watch at their leisure.
Won't happen in my teaching lifetime. At least I can count on one hand the amount of times that I will do this again. Maybe even on the hand of a truly bad shop teacher. Either way, I'll be glad to put this Dog-and-Pony show out to pasture when the time finally comes.
