"On the Head"

Yes, there's a teacher shortage and probably always will be. In what now seems a past life, I was a member of that much undervalued profession. Too many non-teaching duties are involved, and frequently administrators have no idea of actual subject matter and don't "get" what you're trying to do.

However, one frequently hears the bromide that "if you can reach just one student...." And this did happen to me. It's one of a very few instances when a reward of the job can be reaped.

A young student, Frank, had been absent and missed some of our lessons on—what else—Hamlet. I went over a few passages, and at one point—it doesn't matter which, as almost every line is great—Frank remarked, wide-eyed, "Gee,  he really hit the nail on the head, didn't he?"