SPt - #21

So, again, here I am, doing Self-Portrait Tuesday on a Wednesday. Better late than never! The assignment this week was to go into detail about my #21 on my 100 Facts About Me post. (And if you don't remember what Self-Portrait Tuesday is, read this post, where I explain it.)

#21 - I don't know if I could ever go back to teaching public school.

Ohhhh, I loved those kids so much. They made me laugh all day long. But then I had the kids who said the F word to me. It was hard to bite my tongue during moments like that. I actually called a kid an a-hole and got into a whole lotta trouble for it.

And I hated parents. Most of 'em. There were a few wonderful parents, but I had a lot of really bad experiences. The main problem was that the parents wanted their kids to get A's. Forget the fact that their kid doesn't do in-class work while we're all doing it together. Easiest thing in the world. I had one dad who wanted me to change his kid's grade so that he could be eligible to try out for basketball. I said no, because this kid seriously just... sat there... in my class. Did no work at all. Just sat and looked around with a stupid grin on his face. Well, the dad went and bawled to the principal, and the principal basically forced me to offer this stupid kid like a thousand extra credit points to make up his grade so that he could try out for basketball. And guess what? He didn't make the team. :) That's what I call poetic justice.

During my first parent-teacher conference, the parents figured that they could crucify me, right there in the cafetorium. Um, I cried. Seriously. This one lady screamed at me for like 45 minutes, and the rest of the parents in line got angrier... and angrier... and angrier, so they all screamed at me, too. From then on, I brought an egg timer. When it went off, I said, "If you need to talk to me some more, call the office and make an appointment with me and the principal."

One lady came in after school and started screaming at me in my classroom. I kept asking her to keep her voice down, to control herself, and then finally, to let me take her to the office so we coudl have a mediator, and she wouldn't calm down. So I walked out of my classroom and away from her, before I could say something horrible that I would regret. And she followed me!! So I start running down the hall. And she starts running after me! So I took this little-known shortcut to the bathroom, and then hid in the stall by standing on the toilet so that she wouldn't be able to see my feet. True story.

So, because of all the horribleness I went through, I don't know if I could ever do it again. Maybe if I was extremely hard-pressed. Because teachers have awesome health benefits. But only as a very, very, very last-ditch effort. Kids these days have no respect. And many parents don't parent their children. Does that make sense? I felt like I was up against... new American culture. I got tired of fighting. I'm very, very glad to be at home with my kids. They drive me crazy, but at least I don't have 210 of them (overcrowding was also a problem - 40 kids per class. Killer).