A Shrewdness of Apes

An Okie teacher banished to the Midwest. "Education is not the filling a bucket but the lighting of a fire."-- William Butler Yeats

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

So do I need to wipe their noses too?

So there I was at Checkpoint Cornelius, and this young man was standing next to me eating some ersatz nachos. He was a young fella who needed a lot of correction so I was attacking one problem at a time:

"Hey, bud. Please put on your ID." He did this, and did a kind of twirl as he did it. A chip fell to the floor.

"Oh, you are SO going to pick that up," I said, giving him a minor look. He started to act like he was going to refuse in a teasing manner that is oh-so-typical of 14-year-old boys, but I shot him the stronger version of "the look" and he bent over and picked it up, then threw it in the trash. Kid wanders away, then he comes back. I've got a magnetic personality, what can I say?

Along comes our freshest-faced AP, who sees this kid and starts griping at him about his sagging pants, which have moved south as he has moved away-- I mean, my mouth is open getting ready to say something. AP Doogie Howser threatens to send the kid home, so the kid pulls up his pants and does a little rap about how his pants aren't the AP's business, and I start to respond to this rudeness, when the AP cuts him off and threatens to send him home for FIVE days for the pants plus the backtalking. Then the AP says,

"And Ms. Cornelius! If you see his pants even two inches below his waist I want you to write him up!" And then he walks off.

Now---- HUH? I am all for enforcing the dress code-- you know me-- but if the AP already doesn't like the sagging and the lipping off, why doesn't he take care of it himself? After all, he's got far more freedom to act than I do. I have to say, it sounded like he thinks I need instructions to enforce the rules (and BTW, anyone who gives a kid a referral for sagging is normally going to be completely ignored and made to look idiotic in front of administrators, kids, and anyone else unless you see body parts).

So sure-- I've got plenty of time on my hands to deal with your problems.

Labels:

4 Comments:

At 1/24/07, 9:08 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sounds like a classic case of passing the buck, if you ask me.:(

 
At 1/25/07, 11:31 AM, Blogger Batya said...

Doesn't sound very good to be ordered to look at the kids' rears.

but that's management for you

 
At 1/25/07, 12:40 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Honestly. Can we focus on the larger problems, please? Like attendance, for example, or civility in the classroom. Oh, and that little thing called personal responsibility? Yeah! How about THOSE things?

 
At 1/25/07, 4:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yuk. What a crappy administrator.

Another escapee from the classroom, no doubt, and the kids are far better off without him.

In NYC right now, due to a lag in contracts, teachers are making more than administrators. It may not last, but it's kind of interesting.

And guys like that deserve the pay cut.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

free statistics