An Evergreen Quote on Teaching

Great Teacher Onizuka artwork.

“SHUT UP!!! There’s a girl out here dying and all you can think about is your career!? There’s a word for teachers like you! GARBAGE!! Call the police! Call the Board of Education! Call anyone you like! Just don’t you dare call yourself a teacher. Not in front of me. Not ever again!! Four hundred students in ten years; so each one’s worth four-hundred!? Listen to yourself! Is that why your mother made you work so hard!? So you could spout off crap like that!? For you, maybe they were all just one in four hundred…just another slab of flesh in the long line at the registration table. But to them, you were their homeroom teacher. The only one they had!” – Onizuka Eikichi

Almost 12 years ago, this quote hit me hard when I read GTO Volume 17 when it came out. It’s amazing how timeless these words have become in a time where the education system’s factory model is trying to stay relevant. Why aren’t teachers applying a bit more psychology to their instructional styles? Why aren’t those that do get noticed? 

“Think of the children!” – what a BS phrase that justifies people’s rationale to make them do things that’s “best” for them and to take advantage of the fact that they can’t fully form opinions in a meaningful manner. 

(c) Manga Therapy – Where Psychology & Manga Meet – Read entire story here.