Today, I realized why my elementary teachers were unrealistically nice.  Seriously, I do not remember them ever being upset with me, or if they were, they were nice about it. Now I know why.

The hairstyle of the day was a braided ponytail, twisted into a bun.  An hour later a headache started.  Girlfriends, remember when we were kids and our moms made the pigtails too tight?  Yeah it was one of those headaches.  Except, my hair is curly, so I couldn’t take out the ponytail.  If I did, we’d have a Macy Gray situation on our hands. That would definitely distract the kids from their AIMS testing.  So, I tried to endure.

I had to talk in an unnatural for me soft, soft voice.  At first ,the kids tried to pull me to their level.  It didn’t work.  The pained look on my face whenever anybody was loud was persuasion enough for everybody to return to and maintain a calm state of being.  Pleasant would be an oddly adequate description of the day.

It wasn’t until I tried to figure out what was different about today that I realized it was the “teacher bun.”  All this time I thought those teachers had a talent for calm that I lacked.  NOW I know the truth.  The conservative hairstyles they wore gave them headaches, so they had to be calm.

Hmmmm, so long as my hair doesn’t fall out (don’t laugh that really did happen when I tried wearing cornrows in the 80’s) I think I have a hairstyle for the rest of the year.  Those poor kids won’t know what happened.

That is one of the many things I like about teaching.  There is always something new I can learn.