Resilience

All teachers need a measure of resilience. The profession of teaching can be ruthless and grueling; dealing with difficult students, teaching the same curriculum or subject repetitively, or just dealing with small nuances in class. One of my biggest fears about going into teaching is having to deal with difficult students. Children can be extremely smart and know exactly what buttons to push and how to push them. I recently watched the "Ron Clark Story" (a great movie btw) and in one scene Clark loses control and slams a students desk, then walks out. Ideally situations like this would never arise, but the reality is that they do and teachers must be able to control their temperament and regain control. When I watched this I began to wonder if I got that hot headed, what would I do? I do not think I would be able to return the next day as he did. I'm not sure what that says about me and teaching; I guess I need to improve my resilience.
As for the question on how to prepare our teachers for stressful situations like this, I believe its less of a question of preparation and more about selection. If we replicate the education system in the Nordic countries (there was one mentioned in class that only allows students in the top 10% into the education field) I think it will limit future teachers to those who are extremely dedicated and hard working. I believe that both of these qualities are directly related to resilience. It shows that you are persistent and will work through good times and bad. I'm sure there are several issues with this, such as we may overload the student-teacher ratio, or we may lose numerous great teachers who are very caring but may not excel academically, but I believe we could find ways to work around these. Also I think it would greatly improve the education field not only in resiliency but overall.