A Teacher's Patience (and Lament)
I dunno, I think now that teaching pupils is like ... .. like sowing seeds and not knowing if the RAIN will come at all ... the next day, the crops may sprout or they may not ... and as gardener, you don't have the hose/any water system, except maybe for your ability to generate good motivation, which could be like rain for the crop (= the given piece of knowledge in the student). Look, I think the patience a teacher needs is not patience - it is, I think, rather a kind of blissful ignorance - just not giving too much of a damn about what the students will know / remember / be willing to admit they remember / be willing to admit they don't remember ... It's like getting a new dog - you never know when the day will come when the dog will know how to "sit" and how to obey your call ...