I’ve been teaching in the public school system these past two years. As friends can attest from my frequent boo hoo-ing, teaching middle-school has been the absolute hardest job I’ve EVER had.
Compared to other jobs I’ve had…teaching kids ranks at the top for sheer misery.
1. The tyrant — I once worked for a man (they said he was brilliant – I couldn’t tell), who micromanaged every single detail of his staff’s work. It was to the point where people were afraid to pick their noses without his expressed permission. And then he’d blast you for walking around with a crusty nose.
He was rude, demanding, and bombastic. He was so bad that the secretary’s husband yanked him up by his collar and pinned him to the wall for harassing his wife. He gave me huge headaches.
2. The fabricator — she claimed every single piece of work done by her staff as her own. It didn’t matter that you spent hours of overtime slaving over projects, verifying information, or making contacts; she claimed it and got the raises for it. And by that I mean, she wouldn’t give you credit for it when it came time to evaluations. She’d say things like: “well, I can’t evaluate you on department responsibilities because you haven’t spent much time on those, so I can’t justify anything above “expected.” It didn’t factor in that staff spent time on HER projects, which effectively took them away from some of those department responsibilities. Meanwhile, she’d be at the beauty salon having work done. Hmmm…in hindsight, that might have been a good use of her time. She didn’t write well, she didn’t speak well, but she was good at using her employees to advance herself.
3. The tech-evader — this one actually bragged about not knowing anything about computers and not being interested in learning. (I have problems with people like that — I mean, learn the basics already.) So while staff would have perfectly good programs on their computers for compiling data, she’d insist on everything being handwritten.She wouldn’t even consider clicking a file icon on the computer to look at a spreadsheet. Can you imagine how frustrating it is to have to hand write AND keep a bottle of white-out handy? Our desks and file cabinets were overrun with mountains of lose papers and folders.
These are just a few, but in comparison to teaching, these were a piece of cake – almost. At least the kids liked technology, and when I could get them to the computer lab in the library, I could at least engage them. I’m not saying I could keep them off the game sites or get any work out of them. I’m just saying, for 45 minutes or so, I could have modicum of discipline.
Discipline problems are huge in the public schools. It’s no wonder one of the first job requirements listed is “Classroom Management.” It’s a misnomer. What they should say is: must be prepared to provide security, psychoanalysis, and security. Did I say security? I’m a grown woman. I’ve lived in big cities all my life. The worse fight I ever saw in my entire life was between two 13 year old girls. I swear, they wanted to kill each other – over n-o-t-h-i-n-g. And the parents, well, I don’t know, let’s just say they ranged from being totally oblivious, to not knowing what to do about junior or junior-ette, to being a piece of work themselves.
You may hear more from me on this subject. It made an indelible impression on me. I may not get over my experience. Well, maybe I could get over it, but I don’t intend to anytime soon. I must remember why I must not return to the classroom.
