Needing to Get Away From the Public School System

As I said before, being a substitute school teacher was healing me, but I think that is coming to an end. While I actually like the teaching, I'm burning out on several aspects of subbing:  It is difficult to deal with kids who always want to use a sub to get away with whatever they can.  I hate never knowing where I'm going to sub, and there is just the overall feeling of being an intruder in someone else's classroom.

But these aren't the major problem.  I can't handle the left wing bias.  I don't want to go into too many details, however it seems to me that the major push within the public school system is to indoctrinate the students to a blind obedience (at least during a crisis) and waiting for someone else to save them. Moreover, no questioning among the staff about these, even in private is allowed.  In fact, in my experience, if you don't profess sufficient enthusiasm for the procedures, you are called in on the carpet.

I want to be generous and try to believe that the goal isn't to create a nation of easily led sheep, however I can't even begin to fathom how anyone involved can't see it, so I must conclude that it IS indeed the goal, and that the overall participants fall into a few categories: Those wanting to create a nation of sheep, those who have already become sheep, those who need the work and are willing to compromise their principles, and perhaps a few who are trying to undermine from the inside.

It isn't just the emergencies either.  The curriculum, texts and lessons all seem to be prepared to dumb down the population, and to force a left wing mindset.

There have been several suggestions in my state for ways to reform education, but the only reform that will really work will be to have the parents,taxpayers (for the taxpayers should have some say in what their money goes to fund), and voters to actually know what is being taught and why.  I'm pretty confident that if the general population in my state knew what was going on in the schools, there would be an uproar.  Maybe it's time to expose it.  I just can't be the one to do it.  I can't operate in secret, and that is what would be required.

I'm Getting My Confidence Back. Part 2

Some time ago, I wrote that I was getting my confidence back.  It is interesting, but it's still true and, this time, I've realized something interesting.  I am a substitute teacher, and I am doing well, despite having zero training to be a teacher.  OK, the kids sometimes walk over me, but that is how it works with subs. The thing is, I don't often get called in on the carpet for anything, and I am working most every day. I maintain decent classroom discipline, and generally follow the lesson plan (when there is one).

It was noted last night that a substitute teaching job is healing me.  A job that is widely considered one of the most thankless and unfortunate jobs available, a job in which I receive daily abuse at the hands of near feral children, a job that barely pays me minimum wage, a job that has me essentially on call during school hours, a job for which I have no training, is somehow healing me.

This raises the question, if being a substitute teacher is healing me, making me feel better about myself and about the world in general, and has has erased the constant stress and anxiety about going to work, how bad was my previous job? 

I really can't say, because I was in that environment for so long and, until now, that's how jobs seemed to be.  My boss was someone I once had respect for, and who I had considered an ally.  I was wrong.  I will be very careful with whom I ally myself again.

What I can say is that I am happier now than I ever have been in any job.  I wish substitute teaching paid well enough I could make a living, however I have discovered something very interesting.  I enjoy the "difficult" classes.  I taught at an alternate school today.  The kids were problematic, but I seem to be able to make them respond.  On several other occasions I've taught regular special ED, or resource room.  It is for the slightly slower kids. Again, I've enjoyed it. Strangely though, what I enjoy most is the DLP or Developmental Learning Program. Or the program for children with severe mental deficiencies.  Some are severely autistic, some have other issues.  Some are basically infants with teenage bodies. It is very difficult work, but somehow very rewarding.   I'm thinking seriously of applying for the position.of an aide in the program.  It doesn't pay much, but it does get benefits, and I would feel good about the work.

No matter what, I'm glad I'm through with that university.

Health care lies and indoctrination.

I just watched a PBS (Proletariat Broadcasting System) special in a class I Subbed for.  It was on “Government health Care”  Basically socialized health care.  It explored the socialized health care in several systems, touting that there are “real market solutions” to the problems critics of a socialized health care have raised.

I can’t speak to all of the information they put in it, but it was somewhat dated (from around the time of the election), had some seriously dated information.   Only glowing reviews of the English system were shown, however there were several parts that were inaccurate at best.  It stated that England has a longer life expectancy than the U.S.  This is true.  It’s about a year longer, and it just counts age at death rates.  That means that the serious problems the U.S. has in the inner cities with a murder rate that leaves a male born in certain areas a life expectancy of 18 years is counted in the U.S. figures.  England has a serious gang problem, but the murder rate is no where near ours. This skews our life expectancy lower.  No matter the medical system, murder it isn't going to help murder.

The other problem was that nearly every country surveyed, mandated that everyone had to purchase health insurance.  While I find the idea flat out chilling in any case, and it was clearly before the court decision was handed down stating that such is unconstitutional, there was no mention of the potential constitutional problems with such an arrangement.  This from a supposedly reputable journalist.  He didn't even think of it.

It's clear that the progressives see the constitution, not as something to guide and restrain government, thus keeping it from becoming tyrannical, but rather an obstacle to their goal of total government.  They only think of it when it gets in their way. 

Fire Inspector Coming

I've been called to sub for the remainder of the week (4 days) at a local high school.  It's an English class, and there's not really much there to report on, however the last class period today was her prep hour.  Just as 4th period ended (there are 5 class periods), the principal (who was actually one of my teachers), came in and started talking about how to rearrange the room.

Apparently the fire inspector came in and didn't like the arrangement of the room. Now it has to be fixed. I'm the one who will be there to do the manual labor, and to entertain the inspector when he comes. It should be fun. 

I'm not real fond of the idea of rearranging a teacher's room without her input, but I guess I'll have to, since I'm pretty sure the principal outranks her.

UPDATE:  Well, I rearranged the room, and the fire inspector actually liked what I did, as did the Principal.  He thanked me and was grateful.  I've no word on what the teacher thought of it, but I kept the fire inspector off the principal's back, and that's the important thing here. 

I'm Getting My Confidence Back.

This post requires some background.  As I've stated before, I worked tech support for about 15 years for a university.  As I worked, I gained a lot of confidence.  I became very good at my job.  For reasons I don't want to get into, I upset some powerful people.  I came down on the wrong side of some politics, and took part in exposing some very embarrassing and illegal actions on the part of some of my bosses.  Shortly after that, things at work got very, very bad.

Before long, they started to find a lot of problems with my work.  If anything wasn't perfect, I was called in and reprimanded.  I was reprimanded when my supervisor would find a single chair out of place in a computer lab, or a single piece of paper on the floor.  It didn't matter that I had to take care of labs all over the university campus, and it took a minimum of an hour to even walk to all of the labs.

The abuse I experienced got more and more severe, until I wanted to quit, but I had just gotten married (actually, my  choice of wife was part of their problem with me, but I don't want to get into that right now) and my quitting in the middle of a a recession with unemployment that (when counted using the same criteria) is actually higher than during the Great Depression didn't seem like a good option.  I needed the insurance, and I needed an income, and I didn't feel that I could get a job so easily.  The only way I could get by was to either keep working, or get fired and get unemployment.

I believe that they wanted to make it bad enough that I had to quit.  I was determined not to quit.  The abuse led me to having an anxiety disorder.  I went on Effexor, a drug commonly used for anxiety disorders.  It also has serious side effects, including rather severe sexual side effects that make it rather unpleasant for someone newly married.

When I was finally fired, I fought it.  I took it as far as I could, but I didn't have the money to continue on, so I was forced to abandon my fight.  The blessing however was that I could go off of the meds, and I began to feel better.

What I didn't realize however was just how much my confidence was shattered.  I knew intellectually that I was in the right, but emotionally, I often wondered if it really was my fault.  Since I was fired for incompetence, I wondered if I really was incompetent.

After six months of looking for more tech support jobs, in desperation, I took a substitute teaching job,.  Since then, I have had great success, and generally made the schools I've worked for happy with my performance.  Now I don't pretend that I know much about teaching.  I've never had any training for any kind of teaching, but considering how much training I've had, I feel very good about how I've done.

What I've seen myself do has convinced me that it wasn't me.  It was them.  My confidence is returning, and I am feeling better about myself.  Now I know that I am a competent worker, and can excel at what I try. 

The question is "Now What?"  The way I see it, I have two choices.  I, most likely, can not pursue further action against the university, as the time has run out, so I can either let the whole thing die, or pursue individual lawsuits against my former bosses individually.  It was, after all, their abuse that led to my problem, and they did conspire to fire me without actual cause.  I'm sure that there is something there, but again I would need to hire a lawyer to do it.  Now I do have a good lawyer, but he doesn't work for free, so at the moment I'm stuck.

There are some other options that don't involve the legal system, and they might work.  This particular university is getting hit again and again with charges of corruption.  So far, the local media has covered up for them, so perhaps someone else should step up, and expose all of the problems.

The local paper will occasionally report on the problems there, but they spin it.  They also have a tendency to 'accidentally' delete old stories from their archives. What I did found, however, is that the local library keeps back issues of the newspaper.  Maybe I should go there and extract all of the stories I can find, and put them in an easily accessible location.

I've not had a significant number of visitors yet, but if anyone does find this post, I would appreciate any advice.

Update:  I just ran across the term "Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress".  I'll have to look into that a bit more.