And last, try to accept our being humanly destined to be less than perfect. While I have plenty of misgivings about the external baggage you mention, and I know how that taxes teachers and classrooms, my experience is that teachers do a pretty good job of insulating children from that pressure. But for sure, children are coming to school on shakier ground on so many fronts that we all know too well. Sometimes I feel as though I just don't have the patience necessary to deal with my 23 2nd graders, but taking the day off every time I feel that way isn't practical. It seems to be getting worse.
Good teachers tend to beat themselves up for anything less than perfection.
And are you permitting yourself to have personal feelings of frustration and the like. I often find that good teachers hate to feel anything negative toward the children or their jobs, and yet how can someone not have moments, sometimes lasting days, when they don't have the exuberance for the kids. In education, I much respect the work by Kozol and Kotlowitz, who write about the children of poverty and the implications that has for their education and lives. And in my field, the pioneering work of Axline and Anna Freud who showed what transpires inside of a child's mind and heart. Whether or not people think this is the responsibility of the home begs the question, for teachers know what they face each day.