Sub Vision - Back to ‘Back to School…’

It is back to this time of the year, and, again, I am asking myself – do I truly want to do it? Am I really ready for another year of 5:30 phone calls, schools that refuse to deal with their actual problems, and a new generation of uninterested students?

A favorite school had called a week ago and asked me to start the school year until their new teacher completes his processing. I know better than rejecting a school that I like, so I agreed, but deep inside I questioned my sanity. I know what it means to start a new school year, been there done that… I had faced, in the past, fifty students being crowded in a classroom too small to contain them, let alone their desks… I had seen completely deficient rosters, with students checking in and out for weeks. I have had classroom assignment change on me several times during the first month, subjects switched, conference hour changed, or worse, taken away.

Obtaining teaching supplies is just as frustrating, and if you are new, especially in a big school, it may take months before you find out where to get what. So people like me – who hate a hassle, just go to the store and spend their own money, with a faint hope of one day discovering the right place for supplies or reimbursement...

Another big undertaking is books distribution. Once upon a time, not long ago, there was a textbook room where students would line up, and one by one be handed their books and sign a paper. No more. Teachers are now responsible for this function too (along with custodial, disciplinary, security, food distribution…).  This new duty includes bringing all the textbooks to the classroom (tens of books, each weighs many pounds), making sure that each is distributed and recorded on a special, bar-code numbers list. To say it is a tidies task is an understatement. Identifying the right label on the book (it always has several), finding the matching (small) numbers on the list, making sure students are writing their (real) name, distributing related workbooks, and later, handling exchanges, adds-on, drop outs.

Those blessed teachers, who are excitedly awaiting the start of a new year; their sacred energy already wasted on clerical burden, energy so needed for teaching...