A Study in The Adventures of the Dissatisfied Consulting Music Specialist of the Baskervilles (or something like that...)

Here's a big shocker: I'm a Sherlock Holmes fan.

I mean the A.C. Doyle stories. Robert Downey Jr. and The Great Mouse Detective. Guys, there's even a Super Mario Bros. Super Show episode that's Sherlock themed, and it's great. 

And then there's Sherlock.

BBC Sherlock.

Naturally, since series 4 just started, I've been thinking about it more than usual and I came to a realization. I'm Sherlock-shooting-the-wall-bored with what I'm doing. Originally, I was just dissatisfied with the lack of respect I was feeling. I wanted to pack up my toys and take them to play with someone who would appreciate how awesome they were. But what I'm doing now is too small for me. I've become complacent. I need to find a new challenge because I've done all I can here.

In that particular scene (The Great Game, S1, E3), Sherlock is disappointed with the criminal class - they're so mundane. He needs a challenge, a criminal mastermind to equal his brilliance. A puzzle to solve. A knot to untangle. This is the episode where we meet Jim Moriarty. (Hiiiii.) 

My current job is full of Watsons. I need an educational Moriarty. 

The Watsons let me shine. Maybe they used to empower me. Fill in the gaps that my arrogance leaves. Give me some free reign, but explain when something might be...questionable. Pick up after me when I do it anyway. I'm a Sherlock. I'd be lost without Watsons and they me - nothing works without the two of them together. But nothing works for Sherlock unless he has a good foil.

[source]

The students and curriculum aren't my foil. In this analogy, they must be the cases that come to me. And obviously I'm not the antithesis of education (Notice how I don't say anything about specific Cabinet picks out loud?), so it's not that. It's this: "every fairy tale needs a good old-fashioned villain."

Is the villainy the lack of time I have with kids? The people who don't think I'm more than a Very Fancy Babysitter? I don't think so. It's not advocacy I need. I need to be working with students in whatever capacity I'm given. Sherlock is at his best when his ingenuity is put to the test, and when the problem is clever.

Teaching is a dazzling puzzle everyday. There's not a lack of enjoyable trickiness in what I love to do. I think it's just that, like Sherlock, I get a little unhinged when things are too similar. I think I've solved all the cases here. It's time for a new set of puzzles.

I need something...sooo changeable.

Something ready to burn the heart out of me.



I'm not ready to start keeping bees yet.