I have to Quit!

I have to quit. There’s so much stuff I don’t understand now that I spend all my time gawking at wikipedia and there’s no time left to teach kids. Teachers have to know and understand everything.

I don’t understand this stuff about the railways. I know that Julius Vogel went to Britain to borrow some money to build our railway. He said railways were good. Then I remember Roger Douglas sold the railways. He said railways were bad. And now Michael Cullen is buying the railway back again. He says railways are good. I understand how trains work and I understand that they run on electricity but I don’t understand whether railways are good or bad.

I don’t understand why people have kids and then beat them and even kill them. We lock these parents up, sometimes, and then we let them out again and then they have more kids and I don’t understand that. I understand how they have kids and just don’t understand why.

I don’t understand Kyoto either. The city’s pretty but I mean the agreement. I understood that polluting countries would buy rights from non-polluting countries and that because we have lots of trees we’d be able to sell the right to pollute but I don’t understand how between then and now we have less trees and so we have to buy pollution rights and that should mean petrol goes up in price but Aunty Helen says that we won’t put petrol into our Kyoto thing because our petrol’s too expensive already. The bit I don’t understand is, ‘do we care about pollution or not?’ And where’d all the trees go that were there but now aren’t?

I don’t understand electricity either. I’m OK with the electrons and ‘don’t put your fingers in the sockets’ and if you don’t pay the bill the power is disconnected. We were told the Clyde Dam would wipe out the apricot orchards but we’d have heaps of electricity. Now they say there’s no water in the lakes, that wind turbines are ugly, and that nuclear power plants are beautiful and very safe and cheap. I understand how electricity is generated; I don’t understand how they can think we’re all so dumb.

I don’t understand flowers in salads or pretty patterns on the top of the froth on my coffee. I don’t even understand the froth. I don’t understand bottled water or the jangly things on people’s mobile phones or even dopey ring tones.

I don’t understand why if education is so valued why schools are so under-funded and why if teachers are so important they are so underpaid.

Maybe I should just stop trying.