Sub Vision: Just tell me – is it legal?

I was called to a middle school, not a favorite choice and too far away, but since the school is located in a good neighborhood, and I also know the principal, I thought it would be OK.

I arrived a little late, which didn’t seem to be a problem, and was directed to a classroom on the second floor. On the way there I tried to locate the nearest bathroom and couldn’t find one, a fact that didn’t bother me much until I glanced at the bell schedule. It consisted of five classes, (4 + homeroom), back to back, with only five minutes passing periods. 8:00 to 12:30, no breaks.

Well, I came to the teaching profession after a long career in an office, long enough to know that labor laws entitles you a ten-fifteen minutes break after two hours of work, and a lunch break of thirty to sixty minutes. In an office, most people can eat, drink, and tend to personal matters without much scrutiny, and smokers can go outside at their will. There is no limit on bathroom visits, of course, and unless you are in a middle of a support call to Puerto Rico, or in a closed door meeting, you are free to go to the bathroom whenever you need or want.

Life of a teacher is completely different. For one thing, you cannot be late to work and sneak to your desk, hoping your boss is too busy to notice, or not there yet. If you are a teacher, and late to work, everyone is fully aware of that. Forty students gathered at the hallway, outside a classroom, is noticeable by every neighboring teacher, all the administrators and each of the office staff.

Even more important is a rule teachers have to follow, of never leaving students unsupervised in a room. It means, then, that no matter how urgently you need to leave the classroom for few minutes, you can’t if you have students in the classroom…  Thus, if there are no official breaks, and especially if the passing periods are too short, next period’s students arrive before previous students leave, and there is no way you can visit the bathroom for four and a half hours!

This, by itself, makes me want to scream of frustration, and ask every education ‘expert’ if they happen to know what five classes, back to back, do to students’ attention and ability to learn, or what the poor working conditions do to teachers’ ability to teach, or to their motivation?

By the time I reached lunch time (30 minutes, not a minute longer), I was already fully charged with rage and frustration, which I poured on an innocent teaching aide who, naively, invited me to join them… I was furious with the bell schedule, the class size (40-45 students), a counselor that was not supportive, and principal who pretended not to know me, interrogating me about a text message sent to a student’s parents (couldn’t have been me as I don’t have access to that information), while the only person I called, the counselor, didn’t even answer her phone…

Legislators?  Education experts? Administrators? Parents? Am I the only one who feels that something is very wrong with this system, and it is NOT the teachers?

Sub Vision: Those cafeterias...

Many schools give little or no importance to their cafeterias, especially to the part that serves teachers and staff members.

Students – sure! They receive breakfast in class, free; precious learning time lost, and expensive food wasted. On average, half of the food distributed in the morning ends up in hands of questionable storage keepers, or worse – in the trash can…

Students get free lunch too, on which consumption I know less, but judging from the look of the luncheon area after the break, a lot of food is thrown away too…

When it comes to feeding staff members, however, schools are less concerned, a lot less! There are very few schools that keep a vibrant, fully stocked, cafeteria, catered for the adults who serve the juveniles. Teachers, whose lunch break time is limited to 30 minutes, carefully divided between closing one class and prepping for the next, visiting the bathroom, and eating, often reach the promised cafeteria just to watch the food packed away, longed-for coffee poured (literally) down the drain, and closed cashiers. I can’t count the times when I badly needed my cup of coffee to sustain me, and it was gone, consumed or, worse, drained to the sink…

Those blessed cafeterias that prepare salads and sandwiches, keep supplies available and always have a fresh pot of coffee are friends of the teaching profession. They understand the need of a working adult not only to be fed, but also to rest for few minutes. They are ready to answer to the needs, even if it means running between the students’ window, the kitchen, and the teachers’ lounge.

I don’t know what separates a good cafeteria and a mean cafeteria. They must have budget and resources limitation, but I can tell for sure – every time I encountered a nice cafeteria, there was a nice, generous, person running it. A mean manager translates to bad cafeteria, even if some of its employees are nice and helpful.

I always head to the cafeteria during my breaks, and have seen many lunchrooms. The good ones provide a choice of selections, with a smile and helpful attitude.  Over the years I have seen good cafeterias turning bad, bad ones getting better, good cafeterias staying good even after management change, and mean managers ruining one school, then moving to a different school and ruining it too…

One thing seems obvious to me. The blame is on schools’ administrators. Good and happy schools have good and happy cafeterias. Those who let cafeterias shut services to their staff indicate poor leadership and negligence, preventing this bit of luxury, few minutes of relaxation and adult conversation with peers. This small indulgence sustained me during times I worked at difficulty schools. The knowledge that once or twice a day I would spend few minutes with adults who face the exact same experience was invaluable. Administrators that do not understand that, don’t deserve to be managers of any type, let alone of school staff.

I had one of many experiences at a middle school that used to be a pleasant place, and became unbearable… Students’ bad behavior and administrators’ lack of support are only part of the problems. The school’s cafeteria has not served teachers and staff for years, and knowing that I try to avoid it, not always successfully. Cafeteria with cold coffee, no lunch service, air-conditioned to a freezing point, with outside broken chairs… At the end of one working day there, the office manager made the mistake of asking me how my day was. I told her that it would have been OK had the cafeteria served teachers at lunch. To my surprise an argument had erupted. She claimed I was wrong, and although she, herself, never goes to the cafeteria, lunch is being served! She suggested two possibilities, one, that I may not know where the cafeteria is, the other - that I am lying. No kidding!

Well, not all substitute teachers are very smart… or trust worthy…   

Substitute Teaching: The school that had not changed

I worked at a high school for two years, as a volunteer, teacher assistant, and then a full time math/special ed teacher. I was offered to stay as a special ed teacher, but my goal was to become a general ed math teacher, so I left.

As a substitute teacher, I was rarely sent to that school. Being on the lower end of the food chain, I was sent to middle schools, and not the better ones. Then all of a sudden, more than ten years later, I started to get assignment at that school.

During my first few visits, I was very excited. I studied every staff member’s face and, surprisingly, recognized many. I saw my, then, assistant, who helped me become a better teacher, and other assistants and teachers with whom I worked.

What surprised me was that nothing had changed. Same bell schedule (many other schools had tweaked it with the hope to improve students’ performance). Same long (un-heard of) 20 minutes nutrition break, 35 minutes lunch (you can actually finish a whole salad ball), and, yes, 20 minutes of silent reading (long abandoned by all other schools, replaced by useless advisories, or breakfast in class).

At least as surprising, was to see the same teachers, at the same classroom! Wondering around trying to locate my old classroom, I discovered that the teacher next door, who was my mentor, but also my son’s Spanish teacher, was still there. Another of my son’s teachers, then a young and charismatic teacher, I located at the same classroom where he was twelve years earlier. Teachers did not even aged that much, and the ones I thought were, back then, quite old, don’t look any older.

I have marveled over this phenomenon every time I talk to someone who knows that school, until one day a lady who worked there pointed that something had changed dramatically - the main office!

She was absolutely right! Back in the days, there were two office personnel there, with the same first name, both pretty, both with a bright smile that welcomed you every morning, no matter how stressful the morning was. One had retired, the other was let go during one of the district’s unreasonable reorganizations. Replacing them is a new office manager who may be very efficient, but also very unpleasant.

A public school’s “main office” has enormous effect on school’s environment; it is the gate to the school, the first experience…

It has changed! And not for the better…