So Different

So, I figured I should substitute from time to time, at least to keep in touch with the world of education, if not to earn a modest income that could help me pay for the exorbitant price of health insurance. I registered in a nearby county, sent them my résumé, three recommendations, college transcripts, took a 20-hour-long online training, then 3 more online trainings, went to (unpaid) orientation after being asked to print on my own paper and fill at home the 3 dozen pages of necessary forms, got fingerprinted (at my expense) and background-checked (at my expense), peed in a cup (that I paid for) to prove that I am not a crackhead, and now I can substitute teach. I counted that it did cost me $138 in cash and 26 hours of unpaid training to get there.

Ventriloquist and his Dummy

I was impressed by that county's district offices, a stark contrast with the Taj Mahal of Palm Beach County. Apparently, here people are more important than shiny offices. I am looking forward to observing how a smaller district deals with things... I will of course follow all the rules that have been made clear to me during the initial training ("Don't touch students!"), a subsequent online training ("Don't touch students!"), and orientation ("Don't touch students!"). I hope students get the same kind of training and orientation ("Don't touch teachers!").

So Selfless

The 2016 Jeopardy Teacher Tournament got rebroadcast last week, and one of the finalists, Kaberi Chakrabarty, thanked her principal for "allowing [her] to be there." Really? Teachers have to ask permission to leave town? Kaberi finished 2nd in the tournament and pocketed $50,000 in winnings, which amounts to a year salary for many teachers. I checked her contract with the school district of Joliet, IL, and, though teachers over there are significantly better paid and get better benefits than here, I could not find any provision restricting teachers from engaging in open displays of extraordinary amounts of knowledge.

As I was watching the three finalists exult at their achievements, I knew that they would probably feel the pressure to donate some of their winnings back to the school that "allowed" them to attend Jeopardy, because that is what is expected of teachers. We believe that teachers, even though paid insufficiently, should contribute financially to their schools, to complement what taxpayers and the politicians they elected refuse to provide for the education of our children.

There is no such expectation when any other professional wins prizes on Jeopardy or other game shows. I would like to see Harry Broker, after winning a bundle on the show, declare: "I plan to give 10% back to my employer, Goldman Sachs, for allowing me to leave town and to let colleagues take charge of my clients' accounts. Hopefully, that money will be put to good use, like to give a nice golden parachute to an undeserving executive."

So Done With It

So horrified was I to find out it has almost been a FULL YEAR without any post on this blog, I had to keep you informed with what is going on. I think that the sense of humor that used to be my salvation abandoned me in the last year. I started taking this nonsensical world that is the educational institution at face value, and of course I started becoming irremediably and irretrievably irritated by it. I could feel the effect that stress was having on my body. Doctors were staring to circle above in the sky like vultures, waiting for an easy prey.

My doctors circling high above

I was ready to start this year when we were told that two of our planning periods every week would now be hijacked by administration for "common planning" sessions, and we would better show up, or else... (see my previous post on the new superintendent making us offers we can't refuse). I figured it would maybe last two months, encounter passive resistance from teachers, and then go away like all the other stupid mandates we have been given over the years. However, when at a more than four hour long faculty meeting we were told that on top of losing two plannings a week, I would have planning periods of only 36 minutes, and that we would also have to spend every available minute of our time doing "duty" to make sure that we do more tasks usually reserved to administration, I snapped. I first asked other teachers if they were planning to fight this with me, and when they went unresponsive, I just gave up, went to my room and wrote my resignation letter.

Yes, you read that right: I QUIT! I served my two week notice, enjoyed teaching like never before now that I knew it would be over soon, handed over my keys and ID, and rode into the sunset. Even though the superintendent backed off from his mandate, principals are still eager to implement it, and with an increasing proportion of teachers being now at the mercy of their principals since tenure has been nixed by the idiots in Tallahassee, they will reduce actual time to prepare, grade papers, run copies to a minimum. My former colleagues will adapt by working during their lunch time, at home, or by staying at school longer (and unpaid) hours, but I refuse to.

What is common planning? It is something that ALL good teachers already do, did not need to be mandated, but since the trend now is to mistrust teachers and to think that, instead of the profession having just a few bad apples (like every profession) and a lot of dedicated teachers, people seem to think of us as a majority of slackers who need to be controlled more. That mistrust is, in the end, what pushed me out. I was doing an amazing job, surrounded by incredibly talented colleagues (this school has been rated "A" since its inception), and all we got as reward for our hard work were constant reminders of how, yes, the school as a whole was doing great, but data showed that a minority of male students with Turkish-speaking parents earning yearly income between $30,000 and $32,500 (I am exaggerating, but only slightly) was slightly underperforming the general student population, and therefore we still needed to revise our teaching methods.

This guy's unaware of the vultures
circling high above his head.

So, what am I going to do now? Every teacher was asking me that, meaning "as a job," of course. The unemployment rate in this country is at one of its lowest of all times, and the economy is roaring. Nobody should worry about me. I will be just fine. I can always do what other people do: invest the fortune I made teaching all these years and become even richer. You know we are paid like kings, actors, or professional athletes, right? That is why so much is asked from us.