Hey Ma, Look at Me Now!

This is a line Alanis Morsette removed before releasing her hit song, "Ironic." It proved too cumbersome for her song of faux disgruntled frustration.

Here's a joke known well by all aspiring English majors: What are you going to do with that, teach? And then there's a laugh at the expense of the English major. I was never upset that my degree had the stereotype of tracking its graduates into teaching positions--it was the idea that teaching was somehow...unworthy of respect.

Well, now I'm a teacher. And I recognize the same lack of respect from my students. We're a nation of do-it-yourself'ers who ought not to rely on the tutelage of an older sage--because it's not what you know, but who you know.

But irony is sweet. I just got back from Kaiser after a brand new operation (they gave me a second liver) which cost me $15 because of my health plan. On my way home, I saw a familiar face--a friend from college--a poli/sci major! He was waving a sign that had something to do with Mondo Burrito's Grand Re-Opening...I couldn't really see, he was waving it too erratically.

I waved to him, and as my car splashed muddy water in his face I could see it in his eyes...the recognition of what I knew all along: That age old lesson...only slightly more dangerous than giving a Mafia Don some lip (or the prison guard union a salary cut), is making fun of a teacher.

I was the magister, and he--unwittingly--was my pupil.