Unskilled labor and mightyduck
I completely understand, mightyduck! My brothers are both high school chorus teachers and do a wonderful job, and I work for the county as a tax auditor (and volunteer as a youth outreach leader at my church) -- so I understand. It's just that that first "unskilled labor" comment, while out of the total context, did seem a little insensitive at the time in its context on this thread.
I am cautious of remarks like that because I have known some unskilled labor, many times in my own family, that I feel have worked as hard or harder than many professionals that I know, including myself. I just wanted to preserve their dignity. I was pretty sure that your comments had been benign, but sometimes remarks that are not meant to hurt can hurt nontheless.
No lecture intended.
P.S.: What do you teach, and what has been your students' response to the tragedies? Also, do you find students' work ethic and overall efforts to be promising from day to day, thesedays? I sometimes wonder.
