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.