The Parable of the Dance Master

One day while teaching, Josh was asked, ”Teacher, with the rush to standardized testing, is the art of teaching being jettisoned for the sake of political economics?”

Josh spoke thus:

There was a dance master who had forgotten how to teach.

Standing before the troop, the dance master regarded each dancer.

The dance master looked at the tall, athletic principal dancer.  The dance master had been teaching the tall, athletic principal dancer since the tall, athletic principal dancer was a child.  The tall, athletic principal dancer had been clumsy as a child.  The dance master had watched the tall, athletic principal dancer as a child and thought, “This is not a dancer.”  But the tall, athletic principal dancer, even as a clumsy child, had loved to dance, and the tall, athletic principal dancer, even as a clumsy child, would not be swayed, and the tall, athletic principal dancer, even as a clumsy child, persevered.

The dance master did not know whether the dance master loved the tall, athletic principal dancer for how the tall athletic principal dancer had matured, or whether the dance master loved the tall, athletic principal dancer for how the tall, athletic principal dancer had persevered, or whether the dance master loved the tall, athletic principal dancer for how the tall, athletic principal dancer loved to dance, or whether the dance master loved the tall, athletic principal dancer for how the tall, athletic principal dancer loved the dance master.  The dance master only knew that the dance master loved the tall, athletic principal dancer.

The dance master could look at any dancer in the troop and the same question would be posed.  

Why did the dance master love this petite brunette?  

Why did the dance master love this somewhat plump dancer who would never advance beyond the chorus but who nevertheless worked tirelessly and thanklessly, knowing that slight plumpness would prevent the somewhat plump dancer from advancing, but who never lost that slight plumpness and still was always too good a dancer for the dance master not to utilize?

Why did the dance master love this pair that always scrapped?  Nearly identical in appearance, indistinguishable in ability, equally long of leg, equally slim of neck, arm, shoulders and hips, equally and mutually jealous?

Why did the dance master love this ingenue who clearly had unrealistic expectations about the dance master’s ability to share emotionally with the ingenue, but who was loyal to the dance master’s every whim?  How did the dance master overcome the guilt associated with manipulating that loyalty?

And how, now, did the dance master stand before the dance troop devoid of the dance master’s sole contribution?  How did the dance master who could not teach justify the betrayal of standing before the dance troop, empty?

“Positions, everyone,” the dance master said, “And this time try to dance as if you didn’t hate me.”