If I Never Had to do This One Task Again... #MFRWauthor #BlogHop

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Week 11 of the MFRW Author Blog's 52-Week Blog Challenge.

Today's topic is: If I Never Had to Do This One Task Again....

Oh BOY, am I going to get FLAMED this week, but here goes.

Yeah, I hate work as much as the next guy, believe me, and being the Queen of Lazy isn't as easy as it sounds.

I used to be a Teacher and am now a Sub, but my 'love' for the kiddies decreases by the assignment, so to say I wish I never had to Work Outside the House another day of my life is extremely tempting!

Can I just say that if you are raising your child(ren) to believe they are super-special snowflakes, flawless and without guilt or the crime gene, or simply refuse to discipline them, will you please stop it now?




CASE IN POINT

This week, a second grader refused to shut her mouth all afternoon and despite numerous "Please, stop talking when I'm talking" and "Please don't talk when your friends are trying to work" attempts.

Long story short, her table was accused by a nearby table of 'cheating' during a math assignment.

Not by me, mind you!

Another table rose up in arms and shouted at me that Table # kept cheating and re-rolling their die in order to get higher scores in the game.

Yikes.

Chatty became outraged and near tears, stomped up to me, and proceeded to 'hover', even as I attempted to instruct the class on the next assignment.

Here's me, standing in front of the class with a microphone in one hand and a sheet of paper in the other, with this little Miss Entitled standing directly in front of me doing the, "Excuse me," "Excuse me, I wasn't cheating" "Excuse me," "Um, it wasn't me"

No matter how often I reminded her what I said to the class, or asked her to please sit down and forget about it, she refused.

Guilty conscience if ever I saw/heard one (wink)

I turned aside, covered my ears (which, by the way, I warn every class I sub that I have an inner ear issue, and if y'all gets too loud or shout while I'm talking, BAD things happen to me) and tried very hard not to let a migraine form.

She looked even more outraged and shouted, "That is so RUDE!"

Rude?

Me?

I'm the rude one?


Well, at the end of that long, harrowing afternoon, I headed to the office and the secretary stood near the door like an overweight mermaid resting on a sea boulder.

One arm raised above her clutching the door frame, a leg bent at the knee with that foot tapping the floor, and with this "I fully intend to flog you this instant" look on her face.

FIRST thing out of her mouth is, "Excuse me, but, did you raise a hand to one of the students?"

Raise a hand?

As in, strike one?

Um, I'm thoroughly insulted by this question but... to humor you, who are intimidating the hell out of me...

"Of course not," I said.

Eh, long story shortened, long story anyway now shortened...

I was detained for a good ten minutes while the terrifying secretary who so easily and willingly took the side of a 2nd grader over me, who so desperately wanted to believe I would do such a thing... and the female principal who appeared before me later with just as startled a look on her face, both wanting to know if I had inappropriately touched one of the students.

DAMN

I wanted to walk away and swear I would never, EVER teach again, at least not in a Public school, or at least not at that particular school, or at least not for the rest of the week.

Which I decided on by the time I got home that afternoon.

Little Miss Perfect who did absolutely nothing wrong all afternoon ran to mommy with her tale of woe, so Mommy dragged her darling back into the office to report what she'd heard, and of course, it was all out Crucifixion time for me!

Because there isn't a deceitful, conniving, lying, or guilty child among us in today's perfect world, right?






I have no idea what that child told them, either, but if she said I touched her or hit her, then the rest of her story had to be just as fabricated.

YES, I should have just come right out and said, "Are we talking about the little girl who refused to shut her mouth all afternoon? The one who completely ignored my every attempt to get her to listen and stop disrupting the rest of the class? The one who was accused of cheating by her own classmates? The one who stood well within my OWN personal space and insisted she be heard?"

Is THAT what this is all about?

But, I'm not that person, and I felt like they had already condemned me and took the side of the child, so no matter what I said, them ladies weren't going to listen or believe me.

And, when I get upset, angry, or intimidated, I tend to panic.

My body is frozen, but my mind is like, "This can't be happening," and "Did they just accuse me of abuse?" like being in a state of shock, I guess.


You have no idea how unrewarding and frightening it is to work in this type of an environment today, people.

The staff and educators are treated like would-be pedophiles, all presumed to be guilty without the benefit of a trial and simply because they are adults!

I've actually been 'disciplined' for helping a fallen student up off the playground blacktop once or twice.

It isn't so much about educating the children as it is about seeing which one of us cracks first.

The child has full autonomy over the room, the building, the staff, and other students while the adults are simply there to babysit and bide their time until the blessed bell rings at the end of each day.

Whether a child outright lies to save his own pitiful ass or not, their side of the story is heard, believed, and all anyone else needs to hear before passing judgment.

It's a terrifying, not so great place to work anymore, sadly.


http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/316881257-video


Oddly enough, nothing ever came of the situation, except that I had to spend that night and a restless sleep wondering what sort of vile, untrue email from my employment agency awaited me the following morning.

I never got one and still haven't.

As a matter of fact, my employment agency sent the "Don't Forget to Rate Your Experience" email instead.

(which I have yet to fill out - need a bit more time to cool off)

However, I don't feel safe or out of the woods, yet -- and it isn't from a guilty conscience, believe me.

I heard a man's voice inside that office say, "Disciplinary Action" but never saw him to know what he meant by it... except that I was the only adult being detained at the time.

So, if this does end up becoming a huge, drawn-out deal, it will plunge me into even greater financial ruin as I'll never be able to Sub or Teach again.







I've been around the school system and their inhabitants far, too long to not know a thing or three about children in general, and YES, with my whole heart, I believe it is the Parents responsibility to raise their children and NOT the school system.

If your child's teacher is permitted to tell you there is something wrong, something amiss, and something that needs attention, it should be your job to deal with the issue and not play the blame game or outright deny it is true and take the side of your darling, sweet, completely innocent, "Can't you see this kid's glittering WINGS for gosh sakes?" side of the story.

And, regardless of what you hear on the news, it is far less likely to be the case that an adult is a pedophile or a jerk or a 'snitch' than the Media or your child would like you to believe.

99.99% of people who go into the teaching profession don't do it to 'get back at' children in general, believe me.

They chose the profession because they love the idea of being surrounded by young, impressionable minds, sharing their own knowledge about a subject, and reaping the unsung rewards of watching students succeed or overcome some obstacle in a subject.

Lastly, as a bona fide germ-a-phobe who borders on Monkish tendencies, it is impossible that I would touch an elementary-age child, much less have them touch me.

When it comes to the wee ones, I set personal space boundaries I wouldn't otherwise do in an adult setting.

(When my own children puked, I had my husband deal with it, I am that bad about germs and gross anything).

I always accept hugs, though, because they are great, less likely to spread germs, and give a warm, fuzzy feeling every time.

SO!

As much as I wanted to love it, get along with others, and contribute not just my own knowledge but a bit of discipline and love as well, it is becoming increasingly and terrifyingly obvious to me that I don't fit in a Public School environment in this day and age.




I'm not able to abide by belligerent children and perhaps don't deal with their antics as well as the next guy, but I keep telling myself an obvious lie that with time it will all work itself out when that just isn't happening.

If anything, I feel like the environment is getting progressively worse instead.

Each year in a Public School setting brings a fresh, new crop of even less disciplined, even more belligerent, self-important children with zero manners, respect, or decency.

I'm unhappy and miserable a majority of the time, and it isn't because of the kids!

I'm miserable because my hands are tied; because I'm the victim being treated like the criminal, and because I have zero authority over the children or their environment.

Being a well-paid babysitter isn't what I had in mind when I started this profession, and I truly wish there was some way I could go back to the Parochial environment in order to feel useful again.

So, in answer to this week's question:

If I never had to TEACH again, I think I would be happier, a lot more healthy, and blessedly relieved of the unfathomable stress it entails.

As always, I thank you kindly for stopping by and reading my post!

Please scroll down to the LinkyLink tool and click on the next in line to discover what they chose as The One Task They Never Want to do Again!

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