Skip to main content

Thing Number 75 I Don't Miss About Teaching

The guilt.

It's astounding to me, actually, that we haven't progressed beyond using guilt as motivation in the field of education, but we haven't.

Besides using guilt whenever teachers take a sick day (because they're SICK), administrators often use guilt as a way to make teachers work longer hours. Now, let's make something very clear. Teachers work long hours. Teachers work VERY long hours. There's no one here who's trying to get out of working long hours.

But when (last year), teachers point out that the administration has us working over our contracted hours and are answered with "Aren't you doing this for the kids?" Well, there's just no answer for that. Besides a good kick in the pants, that is.

And now I hear (and oh, how I hope this rumor is wrong but I doubt that it is) that the principal from last year is using the payout for overage hours (each of us was paid $1000 for working 40 hours over - that is, 40 hours with kids over our contracted time; we each put in many hundreds of hours we don't get paid for) as an excuse for not letting kids go on field trips this year. Apparently he's presenting it in sort of a "Those greedy teachers from last year wanted to be paid and the money had to come from somewhere, so there won't be many field trips..."

I'm going to check on this but it sounds like something that the might do and it is low. Weasely. Snake-like. Except that's not fair to the weasels and the snakes in this world. I have ZERO patience from people who 1. Take opportunities away from inner-city kids and 2. Don't take responsibility for their own actions. We warned him that he would have to pay for the extra hours!

Wow. I'm glad I'm out. No guilt.

Comments

justplainuts said…
I'm so glad!!

Popular posts from this blog

Volunteers

I had some of the most overqualified volunteers ever in my third grade class.  This may have had something to do with the fact that I shamelessly begged my friends to help in any way possible.  I think there were a few friends who I asked to come as soon as I met them, before I was entirely sure of their names.  Some of my volunteers included: -Someone with an MFA helping kids read -a PhD candidate in chemical engineering from Stanford helping with math -a PhD candidate in civil engineering from Cal helping with math -several PhD candidates in engineering from Cal teaching about construction (several years in a row) and helping with a field trip -my extremely talented brother bringing his drums several times -a friend from Pixar who got us tours three different years, once when they were no longer giving tours - and came to the class to sign the kids' toys from Cars . -a physical therapist (who I think has a masters') who helped the kids with reading -many athlet...

The Difference a School Makes

Update:   9/28/26: If you are reading this, the spoiler alert is that things got much harder for Jorge after this, and we kept in touch over the decades, even as he’s been incarcerated. He’s getting out of prison in early 2027 and I’m raising money to help him start his life fresh because everyone deserves second chances. Please take a look! Wow. I've talked before about the two kids that a friend and I mentor in a way. I'll call them Jorge (the older one) and Luis (the younger). I had Jorge in my class in third grade and he has had it rough. He's the oldest of six children and was born when his mother was 14. His mom is frequently in rehab or jail, although she seems to have been out for the last couple of years. If she's clean or not is anyone's guess. Jorge helped his grandmother raise Luis. He's always been super over-responsible, stressed out, and had way too many adult responsibilities. About a year ago, Jorge started to crack. He was 13, which isn't f...

Cinderella, retold (and much better)

A seventh-grade student rewrote Cinderella and I think it’s much better! The Dressmakers Once there was a girl named Cinderella whose mother died. Then her father married again, a woman who did not care for Cinderella. She only cared for her own daughters and her husband's fortune. Cinderella’s father made sure they were always fair to Cinderella but two years later,  her father died. Cinderella was left alone with her  stepmother and stepsisters. Cinderella was treated like a house maid but got no money for her work. She had to make the meals, iron the clothes and more. But on some things, like cleaning the windows and floor, Cinderella had to clean them five times per day or according to her stepmother, they will not shine as much as they should.    Cinderella would often cry by a tree by her parents' graves. In that tree lived a little bird who Cinderella would talk with. She would talk to the bird about her stepmother’s many chores and little love for her, a...