I didn't know it was loaded...

I did not know it was loaded. I was visiting my brother François at the long-term care residence this morning and, as I turned to ask his attendant a question, it just went off… His reaction was instantaneous. I saw his shoulders rise ever so slightly and his stance suggested that he was looking for somewhere to hide if ever it became necessary. All I wanted to do was to get clarification on something that was puzzling me, and it accidentally happened… my "teacher voice" went off!

Even after having left teaching for more than twenty years, that teacher voice of mine is still there and I have to be careful not to point it at someone inadvertently. Some teachers use “the voice” with such mastery that it can be lethal. Students who hear it cringe and wish they could somehow escape it by dissipating like a mist. It provokes in them a sense of impending unspecified doom and awakens the deep-seated nightmares lurking in their subconscious.   I’m afraid I never managed to master the use of “the voice” like them. Most of my students figured out quickly that mine fired only blanks.

There are very few teachers who have not only mastered “the voice”, but who are also proficient in the art of “the look”. That weapon can vaporize a misbehaving student in seconds or turn them into stone instantly. Such a combination of “the voice” and “the look” is rare indeed, and only those who belong to the teacher’s hall of fame have both!