DAMN @+#!!/&#+X`#^*!!! SCHOOL BUREAUCRATIC BULL-CRAP!!!
Like I don't have better things to do, right? Now I'm told when a phone call is made to a parent, the thing has to be recorded in an "official" book in the office of Norkem Park H.S. The large sign-in book is located next to the office phone.
Called a parent at my first "break" hour, which happens to be second class period today. The kid I'm calling about disrupted my last class of the day yesterday--and it took the entire hour to get her, along with another "learner-wannabee", out of the class and to the doorstep of the principal.
There, they were told they were "naughty" by the school secretary. Naughty? No way! They were disruptive, disrespectful, and incorrigible! Besides that, they were "nasty." School folks here, administrators, teachers, secretaries, etc., have a bad habit of characterizing behavior of the really out-of-control, nasty darlings, using the naughty word. I call it the "N" word. ..that's a capital "N", not the small "n" I use for nasty. I despise the use of that NAUGHTY word! Of course, I have never been fond of euphemistic language.
Anyway, after going through the usual hoops to use the school phone (I haven't been given a teacher code to access it), I finally reached the mother of one of the offending 8th-graders. We began with the usual, required pleasantries toward each other and then....a beep, beep, beep. No more connect with the parent! The phone, someone's phone quit.
Get this: I'm supposed to make a call to a parent, sign in, explain the offense, etc. Oh, did I mention that it took three calls to finally reach the mother of the previously mentioned child? Now, where in hell am I supposed to find time (to say nothing about patience), to make phone calls from a (loud) main office? What happens when I have my "usual" number of "naughty" children? That number could be anywhere from ten to twenty on any given day.
Am I complaining? Yes, I am! They told us that it would get to this point sometime, perhaps mid-way, of the Fulbright year in South Africa (teaching in S.A., that is). When I heard that, I just kind of laughed to myself. My thinking then was: that isn't going to happen to me. The Fulbright year in S.A. was an answer to fervent prayer...I finally got what I wanted!
Well, we all have heard that phrase, "Be careful, you might get what you really wanted." In this case, it was what I really, really wanted. Now, don't get me wrong on this...I'm having the time of my life here. It's the demands on my time from the school (bureaucracy), that is weighing me down. There isn't any "wiggle" room here...and virtually everyone just sloshes along, wading through the demands on their time, not complaining out loud, but bitching and moaning to themselves. It seems as though folks here are taught to just take it on the chin.
The parent called the office back. She informed the secretary that her cell-phone went dead. Now they want me to give up my few minutes for lunch and return the call. No way! I'm not giving up my turkey and cheese sandwich for a discussion about a girl that was totally out of control in my classroom. As they say here: N E V --AAHH! Translated, that means NEVER!
Okay, I relented. I'm staring at a few minutes of freedom on my "time-table." I went to the office to use the phone available to staff. Said phone was being used by the secretary; she also had her own phone on her desk! I waited for a couple of minutes, then I walked off toward the computer center--to finish this posting.
Life is difficult here. I heard a colleague say he used a cell-phone to call a parent, doing it in front of the class (a real "no-no" back at Flint S.W. Academy, by the way!). He chewed on the "learner" that was misbehaving in his class, then handed the phone to the kid to explain things to his parent. The teacher had no more problems from the rest of the class.
Fine, right? Not so fine for me...I do not own a cell-phone. And I don't plan on purchasing/renting one while I'm in S.A. I have never (that's N E V - AHHH), owned a cell-phone in my life. Not even in the U.S.A. By the way, did you know that there are more cell-phones in China than anywhere else on earth? When I first read that in a local newspaper, I said that can't be...surely there are more of those damned things at schools in South Africa than in all of China!
Back to the Chinese and their over 350 million cell-phones. Hell, they gotta have one...to figure out how they can get together. You know what I mean, don't you? I'm talking about kissy-face, girl-boy stuff, then what follows after all that lathering up. Having been to China, I can tell you there isn't anywhere to go and do it...discreetly. Too many people. Cell-phones in China just mean more population is on the way. Just wait and see...you read it here first.
Nevertheless, it is getting late here and I have one more class to finish off a fairly relaxed day at Norken Park High School. Oh, crap...I suddently realized it's going to be another 8th-grade class! Please say a prayer for me, okay? And while you have the attention of the Eternal Master, ask Him to forgive my impatience and impertinence toward 8th-graders. Listen, He helped create them, so maybe He'll do something to have them learn respect for adults, specifically for classroom teachers like me.
If that happens, then maybe, just maybe, the bureaucracy crap I am writing about will diminish. Let those prayers flow, please! Otherwise, there might be some bureaucracy here regarding hospital reports, dismissal forms, and possible airplane tickets home!
Called a parent at my first "break" hour, which happens to be second class period today. The kid I'm calling about disrupted my last class of the day yesterday--and it took the entire hour to get her, along with another "learner-wannabee", out of the class and to the doorstep of the principal.
There, they were told they were "naughty" by the school secretary. Naughty? No way! They were disruptive, disrespectful, and incorrigible! Besides that, they were "nasty." School folks here, administrators, teachers, secretaries, etc., have a bad habit of characterizing behavior of the really out-of-control, nasty darlings, using the naughty word. I call it the "N" word. ..that's a capital "N", not the small "n" I use for nasty. I despise the use of that NAUGHTY word! Of course, I have never been fond of euphemistic language.
Anyway, after going through the usual hoops to use the school phone (I haven't been given a teacher code to access it), I finally reached the mother of one of the offending 8th-graders. We began with the usual, required pleasantries toward each other and then....a beep, beep, beep. No more connect with the parent! The phone, someone's phone quit.
Get this: I'm supposed to make a call to a parent, sign in, explain the offense, etc. Oh, did I mention that it took three calls to finally reach the mother of the previously mentioned child? Now, where in hell am I supposed to find time (to say nothing about patience), to make phone calls from a (loud) main office? What happens when I have my "usual" number of "naughty" children? That number could be anywhere from ten to twenty on any given day.
Am I complaining? Yes, I am! They told us that it would get to this point sometime, perhaps mid-way, of the Fulbright year in South Africa (teaching in S.A., that is). When I heard that, I just kind of laughed to myself. My thinking then was: that isn't going to happen to me. The Fulbright year in S.A. was an answer to fervent prayer...I finally got what I wanted!
Well, we all have heard that phrase, "Be careful, you might get what you really wanted." In this case, it was what I really, really wanted. Now, don't get me wrong on this...I'm having the time of my life here. It's the demands on my time from the school (bureaucracy), that is weighing me down. There isn't any "wiggle" room here...and virtually everyone just sloshes along, wading through the demands on their time, not complaining out loud, but bitching and moaning to themselves. It seems as though folks here are taught to just take it on the chin.
The parent called the office back. She informed the secretary that her cell-phone went dead. Now they want me to give up my few minutes for lunch and return the call. No way! I'm not giving up my turkey and cheese sandwich for a discussion about a girl that was totally out of control in my classroom. As they say here: N E V --AAHH! Translated, that means NEVER!
Okay, I relented. I'm staring at a few minutes of freedom on my "time-table." I went to the office to use the phone available to staff. Said phone was being used by the secretary; she also had her own phone on her desk! I waited for a couple of minutes, then I walked off toward the computer center--to finish this posting.
Life is difficult here. I heard a colleague say he used a cell-phone to call a parent, doing it in front of the class (a real "no-no" back at Flint S.W. Academy, by the way!). He chewed on the "learner" that was misbehaving in his class, then handed the phone to the kid to explain things to his parent. The teacher had no more problems from the rest of the class.
Fine, right? Not so fine for me...I do not own a cell-phone. And I don't plan on purchasing/renting one while I'm in S.A. I have never (that's N E V - AHHH), owned a cell-phone in my life. Not even in the U.S.A. By the way, did you know that there are more cell-phones in China than anywhere else on earth? When I first read that in a local newspaper, I said that can't be...surely there are more of those damned things at schools in South Africa than in all of China!
Back to the Chinese and their over 350 million cell-phones. Hell, they gotta have one...to figure out how they can get together. You know what I mean, don't you? I'm talking about kissy-face, girl-boy stuff, then what follows after all that lathering up. Having been to China, I can tell you there isn't anywhere to go and do it...discreetly. Too many people. Cell-phones in China just mean more population is on the way. Just wait and see...you read it here first.
Nevertheless, it is getting late here and I have one more class to finish off a fairly relaxed day at Norken Park High School. Oh, crap...I suddently realized it's going to be another 8th-grade class! Please say a prayer for me, okay? And while you have the attention of the Eternal Master, ask Him to forgive my impatience and impertinence toward 8th-graders. Listen, He helped create them, so maybe He'll do something to have them learn respect for adults, specifically for classroom teachers like me.
If that happens, then maybe, just maybe, the bureaucracy crap I am writing about will diminish. Let those prayers flow, please! Otherwise, there might be some bureaucracy here regarding hospital reports, dismissal forms, and possible airplane tickets home!
posted by JOBURG JOURNAL at 1:14 AM
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