April 2, 2012
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1 Is it really Monday already?
2 Ah, vell. Just another beginning to just another week.
3 You know what that means.
4 No news, really.
5 And that's always good news.
6 Couldn't really tell you what I did this weekend, and even if I could, you probably wouldn't care that much anyway.
7 I will say that on Cesar Chavez day, we had a super-long dance rehearsal for Grease. I loved every moment of it. Our students aren't really dancers, but they danced themselves into a frenzy by day's end, and it was quite a productive day.
8 Since my song doesn't really have too much going on, I was able to grade thousands of papers during that time. They had the school cafeteria, aka Cougar Hall all day, so it was nice to be able to spread my stuff out without taking over my living room at home, plus I got to watch the show develop, and laugh along with everybody.
9 I even had time to play a little guitar and sing outside. Thank you, Cesar Chavez. Thank you not only for giving us the day off, but for showing America what they need to do to keep afloat. More on that later.
10 Moving on, Part the First: So I got tons done on grading papers and trying to meet Wednesday's deadline for the end of the fifth grading period.
11 People have no idea how much time it takes for teachers to grade papers and to plan lessons. I have probably averaged at least ten to fifteen hours each weekend this year due to budget cuts and all.
12 Cutbacks on support staff, especially in our bookroom have made it nearly impossible to try to teach. I used to have class sets of books, which made it easy to have materials at hand. This year, trying to arrange that was simply impossible. Either the students had to lug heavy books to school each day, or I had to provide copies of materials, or buy materials, or even write materials so they wouldn't need to carry fifty pounds of books to school.
13 We don't have lockers, and books these days are four times heavier than books we had as students. It's hard to explain why that is, except that in English, for example, we depend on these fat literature books that also try to include cheap grammar lessons in the back.
14 Trying to rotate shorter novels is nearly impossible, since the bookroom is virtually unavailable in the afternoon, when I have my prep period. The bookroom is reasonably dead to me since it is almost impossible to staff full time.
15 So I write my own vocabulary lists, buy my own books to use as class sets, and write out much of what I used to be able to do with class sets of books. I also spend a LOT of my own money running copies of things that used to be free.
16 Because of larger class sizes, I have almost fifteen students more than in the past. That doesn't sound like much until you multiply the paperwork. It is a half a class more of papers times three assignments a week. It adds up ridiculously, and is horribly time consuming.
17 So holidays are non-existent in today's world of teaching. They are merely extra days that we can spend hour upon hour grading papers and trying to keep the books accurate.
18 I'm not trying to grouse here; I'm actually trying to show people how much we as teachers have to do to adjust to all the horrific cutbacks. Our personal lives tend to disappear nowadays. I'm guessing that's not going to get any better in the future, and now our district is talking about attacking our benefits.
19 The media is making it sound like we are a bunch of greedy people who don't somehow deserve health benefits.
20 Are ya kiddin' me?
21 Any teacher doing his or her job knows that our workload has almost doubled in the past five years. We haven't had a raise in almost ten years. Older teachers can't afford to retire, and younger teachers are getting laid off in droves. We have accepted class size increases, firings of excellent support staff, furlough days, increases in our health care costs, and higher expectations with absolutely no financial support, and are still criticized madly in the mainstream media.
22 I have never worked this hard to try to keep up with everything. I still focus on my daily classes, and I still enjoy going in each day, but the deadlines and pressures of working almost 24/7 are beginning to bother.
23 Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we shouldn't work harder just like everybody else, or that we're lucky we even have jobs. I am well aware of the economy, and of the depression we seem to be in. I just wish to point out that like every other company out there, teaching is getting hit hard.
24 I have seen this pattern in many companies: they need to cut back. They have to lay off remarkable people. The remaining people have to do the job of three or four others. Bosses are getting red-assed to turn the "bottom line" around.
25 In most cases, the "bottom line" usually means layoffs. Adequate staffing is costly to any business; we've all known that for years. In my profession, we can buy our own copiers, pencils, pens, paper clips, paper, and all the rest, but firing one person is going to rid the books of a handful of money. Staffing is the single most costly thing when it comes to the "bottom line." Who is expendable?
26 That's the scary thing about America in 2012. Everybody seems expendable, and those remaining have to do the job of three others.
27 I'm not sure how to fix it. Yahoo just laid off millions of really good people. Why? So their bottom line will look nicer?
28 That sort of stuff is inhumane. I'm convinced that most people are hard workers, and that they are loyal and dedicated to their companies. These companies need to support that sort of loyalty and dedication. People build their lives around where they work. They sacrifice everything in exchange for a feeling of job security and benefits.
29 And somehow, people are dissing unions. Hmmmm. Makes no sense to me.
30 We are a thought-controlled country though. Corporate America controls our thinking. Education has been dummy-downed for years. Bad is good. We are told this over and over again.
31 If Yahoo had unions, none of this would have been happening to them. None of it.
32 The corporate controlled media are brainwashing people into being hideously anti-union while at the same time making huge profits while at the same time firing excellent workers, and then dumping on those who remain.
33 Sound familiar? It's happening everywhere.
34 I will support unions until the day I die. People before us have fought hard to protect the working people. They fought, and many died to see to it that families could afford decent wages, decent benefits, and decent relationships with their companies.
35 All of that seems to be forgotten, and we are now suffering because of it.
36 And unions are being damned.
37 For years we have made it because people were proud of working professionally, whether we were doctors, lawyers, teachers, cops, plumbers, gardeners, etc.
38 Many unions trained people to take a professional approach to their jobs. Yes, there will be the guys who don't work hard, but my observation over the years is that they are few and far between. The majority of people with jobs work hard and remain dedicated and loyal to their companies.
39 The companies need to be loyal to their workers as well. Firing people in order to balance the books isn't the healthiest approach.
40 I'll get off my rant now.
41 I may have pissed someone off out there. I don't care. Just my thoughts after spending three days of non-stop work for a district that wants to keep cutting back and laying off amazing people.
42 Just putting my thumb on the pulse of modern times.
43 I don't know the answer. I'm a pretty positive person, but for the life of me, I don't know where we are headed.
44 I am worried, especially for the younger generation. I'm an old brown shoe who is figuring I won't be around to see where all of this is headed, but I am worried for my children, and for their children.
45 The one thing I hold on to is the spirit of youth, and their positive approach to nearly everything. They are strong, resilient, and positive.
46 I have a lot of faith in their intelligence and in their ability to work hard, and to think.
47 And I'm not beat down, not yet. I still love going into work each day. I love my job, and I am willing to fight any way I can to keep younger teachers on the job, and to do anything I can to restore the important jobs that classified staff give to schools.
48 I just think that people need to see that they just might need to form unions, and to stand up against these greedy moguls who think nothing of firing or laying off massive amounts of people so that they can profit.
49 My parents' generation refused to tolerate it.
50 Maybe it's time for the younger generation to gather a collective voice, and to shout, "No more!"
51 They should read a little history, and see why they have the things they do, and understand that there are powers up there willing to take it all way.
52 Enough venting. I'll calm down tomorrow.
53 It's just that I am coming off a three-day where I did nothing but work the entire time on school stuff.
54 That's not right. I'm grateful to have a job, but it has gotten WAY out of control in terms of overworking everyone, and still expecting higher production.
55 Sounds like millions of other companies doing the same stuff to everybody.
56 Just sayin'.
57 All that being said, have a great day today. Spend time with family and friends, laugh a little, and let these guys know that our human spirit can still make changes and light up the world. Honor the spirit of Cesar Chavez. That's what he fought for. That's why we had this three-day. Never forget the spirit of a man who changed the world. A union man. Chew on that.
58 Peace.
~H~
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