Ignoring every urge to defend your pride

The Detroit Pistons might be looking into being teachers, based on their last two games they are clearly not interested in playing basketball. If thats the case then I suggest the first thing they do is get used to losing whatever self respect you have. I mean you could get used to having it repeatedly stepped on.

I have a basketball team that is small, both in height and in number. If a couple kids don't show up to practice then we have to get random kids hanging around the building to come join our practice to help us scrape together a 3 on 3. The kids who I let come join my practice are nice and helpful, they talk a lot of crap with my players but they seem like they are having a good time. After the practice I let them keep playing and I jump in with them for a game of 21. Then practice was over and all my players left the gym, and these 3 people who came in and helped plus one of their friends were all that were left.

I ask them to leave and they literally laugh in my face. I explain to them that I just need them to clear the gym and they start mocking me, and laughing some more. I tell them I'm going to wait and have a seat, and they keep asking "Why are you still here?"
Eventually the director of the after school operations comes in on another matter and now these kids who were acting like they were settling in for a long afternoon in the gym immediately jump out the gym.

Being disrespected like this is just a constant part of the daily life of a teacher. Its hard to blame them, I was just the same way when I was a kid, and so were the kids that I hung out with. Once I got old enough I realized that there was only so much of this fighting against the school that was worth doing. If only I could follow students from year to year to watch for them to grow, I would eventually get some respect. Instead I deal with another fresh crop of misunderstood, not-grown-up-yet, angry-at-the-world teenagers. Every fall I become the target for another crop of kids who hate the same system that I did, the system for which I am now an ambassador. Constantly kids just straight up treat you like you're a child, treat you like the father that they hate, treat you like the nerdy kid that they like to pick on, and treat you like you don't exist.

The forms of disrespect vary, a kid covered the top of my overhead with elmer's glue today, for example. The response to disrespect however is always the same, Forgive and Forget. You have to forget about the fact that the kid said horrible things about you, your face, your mom, the way you talk, etc. you have to treat it like it never happened. A teacher was called a bitch in october this year and she started crying, she quit before december. If a kid says something about you you need to ignore what they said, quietly pull them aside, make them realize and understand their mistake, ask them not to do it again, then let them go about their day. No holding grudges. No comebacks for their insults. No telling the kid "meet outside after work and we'll see how tough you are then." You just have to turn off that part of you brain and act as if nothing happened. The kids may some day learn how to treat people, and sometimes you get to see that, but since you can't guarantee that outcome, no point in even counting on it.

When it does happen, its nice though. I saw those kids outside the gym and they were all still laughing at me. I confronted them, said it doesn't make sense that you're going to sit and laugh at me, especially when I treat them respectfully whenever I see them. I could just be a dick to them every time I see them but I don't want to. They all stopped with the jokes and shook my hands and apologized. It is rare when you can get kids like that to admit mistakes in front of their friends, and had they not wanted to then I would let those kids go off laughing at me. I would still have had to made my speech and just go home trying to ignore that nagging self-respect which I wish I could do something about.

Since the Pistons just lost by 20 at home I'm sure they are already learning to deal with the lack of self respect. Now if we can just get them certified to teach in new york.