Eventually, I realized not simply that teachers are human -- that they go to the bathroom, and function in all the ways 'normal' adults do -- but I later learned, from discussing the matter with my fellow classmates that most of them felt Mrs. X had been particularly cruel as a grade school teacher. I also learned that most of the students from the class felt that she had not been particularly cruel towards myself -- all of them felt particularly persecuted during her reign!

Critical thinking is objective. However, the perceptions of a child, and even of a more mature student seldom have this objective perspective in the classroom. Also, one is always dealing with imperfect information, as one does not know about what is going on in the life of the teacher as well as one's own life. Later, I heard Mrs. X had been suffering a particularly...

Mrs. X's own perspective was limited because she could only focus on herself, in her mind, and not put her problems to the side when she was dealing with a room full of ordinary, unruly children. With the perspective of having dealt with children younger than myself, now, I have more compassion for Mrs. X from my own life experience, and I realize that primary school teachers are human, and commit errors not out of vendettas, but usually due to the same life frustrations as all adults at work. Now I am no longer at her mercy, I can have compassion and perspective, with the benefit of distance