Mosquitoes are a pain. There is the old saying that there is nothing worse than hearing a mosquito when you are lying in bed in the dark — except for then not hearing it! When it goes quiet, then we start to flap around, hitting ourselves in a vain attempt to squash the offending little critter, usually unsuccessfully! But then in the dark, in the quiet, it silently sucks the life juice out of us, little by little. It may just leave a short-lived irritating itch or it may lead to discomfort through malaria and even potentially, occasionally to death. No wonder there is another old saying: “If you think you are too small to make a difference, you haven’t been in a dark room with a mosquito”.
For over ten years a teacher had worked hard and received positive appraisals from her Head in all aspects of her work — she had an excellent rapport with her pupils, prepared thoroughly, delivered with passion and energy, produced appropriate and exciting Schemes of Work, kept accurate Records of Work, marked pupils’ work promptly and helpfully. A new Head then came in and decided to check the work of his teachers, as did his predecessor, including looking at the pupils’ exercise books. To her great surprise and dismay, this afore-mentioned teacher received a list of fifteen points (yes, fifteen points) that the Head felt was wrong with the teacher’s assessment of the pupils’ work, which she must work upon and improve.
The surprise at so many points was nothing in comparison to her feelings when she saw some of the points mentioned on the list. Two points, in particular, stood out for her. Firstly, the Head pointed out that the date was in the right-hand corner, not in the left-hand corner, and that was unacceptable and wrong. Seriously? Is that a concern that we should spend our time worrying about? Does it matter where the date goes? Is that the sound of a mosquito we hear?
After the shock and anger abated gradually from that point, it only arose again, this time in greater strength, when another point was noted. “Your ticks are too big,” she was told. The ticks are too big? Excuse me? Is there a standard length for ticks? Must the teacher spend time measuring out the length of each tick? Must the teacher get her ruler out to measure precisely the right length of a tick? If she makes too big a tick, must she waste even more time and go back and erase it somehow before applying the right size of tick? Would a larger tick not give a child some hope and excitement in thinking that the answer was very special? Would we not want to see a large tick on our work? In short, we may conclude that the ticks are not too big but the mind of the Head is too small. Such an attitude of pernickety-ness and pettiness, like that of a mosquito (or, come to think of it, the other type of tick), simply sucks the life out of a teacher.
Such an attitude is very similar to that described by Jesus in his diatribe against the hypocritical Pharisees who He called out as “Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment — the absolute basics —you carelessly take it or leave it” [The Message translation]. He goes on to say that they are “Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel” or as the Message puts it, “nitpicking over commas and semicolons” (to which we might add “dates and ticks”). Equally, there is more than a hint of another action that Jesus highlighted when He said “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite!” Can we hear the mosquito in the background again?
Are not the important things a teacher should be focussing on “fairness and compassion and commitment”? Are there not far more important things for a teacher to be doing than ensuring they have the right size of ticks? We need to swat the blood-suckers, the life-stealers, and ensure they do not irritate, inconvenience, incense or infect our teachers.
A mosquito will make us sweat if it gives us malaria but seriously, we must not sweat the small stuff. A mosquito mindset will only lead us to quit. So, here is an invitation: tick if we agree – as large as we like, wherever we like, in whatever colour we like – but make sure we tick the important things, not the petty. Yes, mosquitos make a difference – but not the difference we want. Squash it.
- Do not sweat the small stuff
