Quiet Ones. Make Some Room for Them.

"The squeaky wheel gets oiled."
I really dislike this saying.
Partially because it's true, especially in education.
Kids who are lively and chatty, or kids who are disruptive, tend to get a lot of attention.
This isn't a bad thing. It's part of the job.
Thing is, you have to be able to see and hear all the kids.
I have fifty more kids in the same number of classes than I did two years ago.
This is a reality.
I greet all the kids at the door every day.
Apparently an Education Specialist wrote a book and a lot of education programs use this book, and this guy is really rich now, and one of the things he says is that you greet the kids at the door.
Dang. I should have written a book, but I think if you have to be told stuff like this maybe you need to not be a teacher.
Just saying.
Anyway.
I can greet the kids at the door, but getting to each kid each period to address each individual need is a physical impossibility.
I need super-special powers to stretch the time-space continuum.
Or maybe people will decide that kids count and do something about it.
In the meantime, I just want to give a shout-out to the quiet kids that can get invisible, because they are just as important as everyone else.
Sometimes people think that quiet kids are quiet because they don't have problems.
Uh.
No.
And it makes me frustrated, because if I could just have a little more time, or not as many students, I could make sure that the kids who have C's could get to B's and the kids who are quiet because something is wrong get an opportunity to voice the wrong to someone.
Sometimes kids are quiet and just fine, but I know that they appreciate being seen.
I need more room.