I had a professional observation today.
This is how it went-
Imagine you are a monkey handler in a circus.
You only speak English, but the monkeys insist they only understand monkey talk. However, you know that they know more than they are letting on.
The monkeys don't remember anything you've ever said. In fact, maybe you never even said anything, ever before. Who are you? Have the monkeys ever seen you before?
So, when you say, 'Remember last time when we did X?" they just look at you with their blank little monkey eyes in their blank little monkey faces. So innocent.
Then they turn on Tejano music on their phones, run away before the tardy bell rings, insist they don't understand anything, and either sit there looking forlorn and lost- or chatter incessantly with their monkey friends. While you find yourself saying things like, "Sit down. Put your phone away. Let go of his head! Do this work. Pick up your pencil. No, this is not right, the answer is here- it's right here- just write this word on this line!"
I had a student from Poland once. Whenever she met a problem, she would say, "Not my circus, not my monkeys"- a Polish proverb meaning "this mess is not my problem, and the people causing the problem are not my concern."
The problem here is- it is my circus- and they are my monkeys.
I so look forward to the caustic feedback I'm going to get from this one.
