Being a teacher is somewhat akin to the curse of Sisyphus ...


Take a little time to watch the above video, a classic oscar nominated short depicting the curse of Sisyphus. If you are unaware, Sisyphus comes from the pantheon of Greek myth. Sisyphus was a Corinthian king punished to roll a boulder up a hill, to see it roll back at the end of the day for eternity.

Do you find that teaching can be somewhat akin, a bit too similar to be comfortable.

Sometimes, with some students it can happen many times in the same lesson, rolling those little boulders over small intellectual mounds only to discover that in the next lesson we may have to skip back down to the bottom of the hill and start pushing again.

Our greater fate is that we get to push one boulder up an academic hill for a year. Only to roll back again in the new academic year and start from the bottom of the hill on the same journey.

Does this ring true with my many friends in teaching.

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