Al Franken as Stuart Smalley famously said this memorable line on SNL years ago:
“I’m Good Enough, I’m Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!”
Why did this particular line reverberate with so many people? What in it spoke to me as a truth? In my own situation, in spite of the way my (not just physically toxic) school buildings were making me feel then (in South Carolina in those dark traditional teaching years), somewhere deep inside of me, I knew that I could be a good French teacher and enjoy my job and that my students would like me in spite of the horrific scene around me:
– the rude kids.
– huge classes.
– the book.
– the lack of appreciation for the role of languages in a monolingual society.
– ignorant teachers (truly ignorant in terms of language acquisition because so few of us had heard of Krashen then).
– weird ass colleagues who resembled prison guards more than teachers.
– administrators who assessed us with “one size fits all” instruments designed in the last century (one principal once actually fell asleep observing me in class because I was speaking French with the kids).
And now, all these years later, I appreciate Smalley’s words even more. With comprehension based methods, we, with Stuart, can now say about our teaching:
“…we’re good enough, smart enough, and doggone it, our students like us….!”