I'm quitting school. No more college.
I didn't know how much teaching meant to you.
Well, it's not the teaching really. It's being around kids. You know how much I've always loved having children in my life, working with them, helping them. You know, in a couple of years, Sam and David, they'll be in school. Ruthie's doing great. Simon's in high school. Robbie and Lucy are in college, Mary's in New York and Matt's going off to medical school. So...our kids need me, but they don't need me. If I teach every year, I'll have a new batch of kids who I'll need to help the way I helped our kids. It's the perfect job for me. All I have to do is take what I've been doing at home for the last 20 years and put it in the classroom. I can do it. I think I'll be good at it.
I'll help. I've always supported you in whatever you wanted to do. I love you. I want you to be happy.
Lately, with all the changes I've been going through I found that sometimes I'm more comfortable in the company of women. I love you, but you know, sometimes I need to talk to a woman.
I don't know. Women: we're all part of a club. Rich, poor, fat, thin, happy, unhappy, we're all going through the same things. And you can be a lot of things for me, but no matter how hard you try, you'll never be a woman.
Never wanted to be until now. But I get your point. You and me, we're okay?
(to Eric and Annie) I'm gonna be... a gynecologist.
Well, he does love women.
[to the class] I know we just started reading "Swiss Family Robinson" today but can anyone tell what they think the moral of the story is?
CChristy
I think the author is showing us that even though you may not be shipwrecked with your family that all families have to figure a way to get along.
Yes, good. The author, Johann David Wyss, is telling us that all relationships require a lot of work. Patience, tolerance and love. He wrote this book to teach his own sons life lessons.
CChristy
If two people fight all the time, they should break up, right?
Well, yes, if two people are fighting all the time then maybe they shouldn't be together, but you're young.
CChristy
That's what I think, too. Thanks, Mrs. Camden.
Well, I don't know what Christy's parents are fighting about, but whatever it is it can't be more important than their daughter. Don't they see how their fighting is affecting her?
You know, there are a lot of parents who believe that as long as they are not yelling at their kids their kids aren't affected by their yelling. They don't seem to understand that a parent's relationship with each other affects their children for the rest of their lives. If we can learn how to have a good relationship from our parents, we can learn how to have a bad relationship from them too.
Thanks, but of course, I know all that, which is one of the many reasons they asked me to teach.
Hey, I'm just trying to be supportive.
(to Eric and Annie) You know, you guys fight a lot.
You don't know if we fight a lot?
I don't know what answer won't cause a fight. Maybe I need to find a better way to communicate with you.
And maybe if I take hormones, everything will go back to normal?
No, I didn't. I want you to do whatever you need to do. And I want us to stop fighting.
But we've always had fights, and we're always gonna fight.
Well, then maybe we need to find ways to fight that are more productive and friendly.
I honestly was just trying to help.
But I don't always need your help. I want to solve my own problems by myself.
We're a team. A good team. We've always worked together and our relationship has been the better for it.
But lately I feel the need to have things that are just mine and I'm going to try to be nicer.
And I'm going to be more considerate of your feelings.
I guess we need to show it more, huh?
Mary tells me she's here permanently.
Permanently? That's the best news I've ever heard. We have our whole family back together again.
Don't you want to know what happened with Wilson?
I'm sure she'll tell us eventually.
[to himself] What's wrong with this picture?
I've got something to say to you and I think you're old enough to hear it. Life isn't fair, so get over it.
Thank you for letting me know that. Only a parent, a mother, would care so much that she, you, would explain such an important lesson in such a simple and direct...way.
[about Mary] She's still incredibly irresponsible and she seems to have absolutely no awareness of that. How are we going to make her conscious?
Oh, you mean how are we going to make her confess. Here we go! It's Richard Nixon all over again! I love Richard Nixon.
Since when did you love Richard Nixon?
Since I heard someone saying that what God is showing us through parents is that he loves us despite the things we do, not beacuse of the things we do. You don't even recognize your own sermon, do you?
