Wherein Ms. Hudson Romanticizes her Life in Movie Quotes

Maybe it's a Foster thing. Maybe it's not and everyone else does it, I just don't pick up on it. Maybe it started with Forrest Gump and spilled over to all other movies. Whatever the case, a line from a movie gets taken out of context and plopped into whatever situation we'd like to use it in, usually with meanings implied by the speaker relying on inferences that could only be made by a member of the family. So as you can imagine when I caught myself thinking in movie quotes with no nearby family to help with the references, I decided to write about it. Without further ado, the movie quotes I've thought in lately.

Oh, there he goes off to his room to write that hit song "Alone in my principles." 

I work in a job where I constantly advocate for an otherwise ignored population. Somebody recently offered the commentary that you can see how someone speaking for the ignored would often also be ignored. Does that make it okay? Never. Am I making progress? Sure, but it's slow. And it's often extremely frustrating. A role like this might mean I challenge a teacher in a conversation, "Interesting, what makes you think he can't do it?" Or it might mean I push people on their expectations for English Language Learners. "Why were you so surprised that they succeeded in that lesson?" Or that I frequently give a speech to my students where I remind them why they are in school, what my job is, and how that means that NO WE CAN NOT HAVE FREE TIME OR GO TO SLEEP INSTEAD OF LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY. Or it might mean that I will print out the prejudiced e-mails you send me and I will quote you on that horrible thing you just said in front of a child and I will march that paper to someone in authority so fast you can't even save yourself with a graphic organizer you pulled from the internet. It might mean I get passionate in a meeting and get so worked up and have so many things to say that I have to leave the room when I'm done for fear my head will explode. And this is the moment where people probably say, ...there goes Mrs. Hudson, off to write that hit song "Alone in my Principles." 

"GET OFF MY PLANE."

When I get a little worked up in the above situations, I get this fiercely protective defense for the defenseless. If you consider the endeavor to teach children language and give them opportunities to succeed in this country to be my plane Air Force One, and if you consider those who make lazy, shameless excuses for not accommodating their students' language needs to be Russian terrorists, then I am Harrison Ford, President of the United States. And I mean it with every grit of the teeth and force of that final push when he says, GET OFF MY PLANE.

Because I'm a pusher. I push people....because I know you're smarter than this.


My students ask me all the time 
"Ms Husson why we have to write sentences"
"why we have to do math"
"how you spell (random word)"
"why we have to learn english"
"Ms Hossin why we have to read"
"how you spell (more words)"
"Ms Hudso why we can't have free time"


And I always want to answer them with this. Simply put, because I'm a pusher. I push people.

"Why don't I let you go to the bathroom? Because you're bored. And you don't really have to go, do you?"

It might sound like a form of torture to those of you outside of the schoolhouse, but kids ask to go to the bathroom all the time. I mean all the time. And when you ask me right after I explain a problem and I ask you to try on your own, or you ask me right when I say to get out homework, or right when I'm giving directions, the majority of the time I just don't believe you. 
Sorry, kids. 
Though I think this quote in my head, I try not to actually give them a chance to admit to boredom. Because honestly, that's not something that happens in our classroom. There's just too much excitement.


If you've never watched the above video and you're starting to wonder why people are teachers after reading any of this, then watch it. It's some serious truth.