“And when she read aloud my words in that other tongue, when I listened to myself speak through her, I heard myself in a different way.” In a college composition class a few years ago, many worlds came together.

“My father sold his water buffalo so I could come to school.” An American public school teacher, longing for less commercialism and more community, gets her wish in Nepal.

“About ten or eleven at night, she comes to bed and pretends to be exhausted. She acts as though teaching 24 kids, some with significant emotional problems, is more challenging than having a real job.” A husband’s thoughts on his lazy, lying wife — who claims to “work hard” as a teacher.

Kara Reeves on why she left teaching: “I could tell that those two weeks broke the bond that I had built with some of my most challenging students. They just didn’t trust me anymore. That goes against every single thing inside me that led me to become a teacher in the first place.”

Amanda Ann Klein on workload in academia: “During those 5 years I was always wondering if I was doing ‘enough’ to succeed.”

“What we tend to want are simple solutions, dichotomies, dualities, one choice or another — not complexities and subtleties. But the human brain, the human culture . . . and the systems in and through which we operate are damned complicated.” Ann E. Michael weaves a beautiful short essay on the power of poetry through the ages.

“First, you need to know right now that I care about you. In fact, I care about you more than you may care about yourself. And I care not just about your grades or your test scores, but about you as a person.” Teacher Chase Mielke explains that school isn’t primarily about academics, but learning to navigate through life.

“Alexander, you assume that national standards, holding teachers accountable for test scores, more high-stakes testing, more rigor, and privately-managed charter schools will cure poverty.” Diane Ravitch critiques Alexander Nazaryan’s Newsweek piece, which defends the Common Core standards.

By shifting to pre-20th century texts, in one swoop Gove is erasing many representations of race and women beyond servants, petticoats and tragic lovelorn figures.” British Education Secretary Michael Gove cuts classic American literature — like Of Mice and Men — from the GCSE syllabus.

Educator Sonya Huber compiles a list of 42 things addressed to students on this alternative syllabus. Here’s #6: “The goals and outcomes I am required to put on my syllabus make me depressed; they are the illusion of controlling what cannot be controlled.”

“You start to feel sorry for the students who are told over and over again to pay attention because you understand part of what they are reacting to is sitting and listening all day.” A teacher shadows students for the first time — and explains a lesson learned.

“Sitting at your desk, you drift into a daydream, the dragon dancing around your head, breathing its fumes down your spine. Your teacher drops down in front of you, asking you to ‘have another go’ at your art. Apparently the sky cannot possibly be green, or the donkey orange.” Ellen Kydd on creativity and the restrictions within systems of learning.

The Common Core seems to have ushered in an age where third grade has become the new middle school, middle school is the new high school, and high school is the new college.

Rosemary Hathaway at Nerdy Book Club: “Adults who challenge books are more often trying to protect themselves and their ideas about what childhood and adolescence should be than they are trying to protect real children and adolescents.”

“I cannot possibly supply a complete list of the things that drove me out of higher education.” At Finite Attention Span, Chris Atherton writes about leaving academia and a job as a senior lecturer in psychology.