Monday, May 15, 2006

Home might be where the heart is, but some mighty stupid people live here, too.

Wow, this town is rockin' with controversies this spring!

We've got a social studies teacher who told his classes that "Slavery wasn't all that bad. Don't you get punished by your parents when you do something wrong?” When his students tried to argue with him, they were told to sit down and be quiet.

Was anything done? Nope. We've got about ten black families in this town and they're very unhappy, but nothing was done. We've got several thousand other families in this town who are also very unhappy, but nothing was done. Nothing is ever done when something deserves to be done.

We've got a teacher who devotes half or more of every class period to 'silent reading.' If there's time, he teaches them something. Has anyone spoken to him about this? No. This is not the kind of silent reading that I used to look forward to when I was in school, by the way.

We've got a teacher who falls asleep at least once every period. His students watch for it, and when his head falls back and he starts to snore, they tiptoe all over the room and pretty much go silently bonkers. Sometimes, they go out into the hall and point through the window so others can see the sleeping teacher. Was anything ever done? No.

We've got another teacher who playfully put a little piece of tape over the mouth of a disruptive student. The student laughed and straightened up, and life went on. But apparently another student snapped a picture of the taped-up student with a cell phone camera and showed it to her parents at home, and those parents, completely unrelated to the student in question, complained to the principal and the teacher was put on administrative leave, which is a euphemism for being suspended and investigated.

The community has risen up in defense of this teacher, but the administration will not back down and apologize. The parents of the disruptive student have gone on record as backing the teacher. Nobody except this one uninvolved family is upset over what happened; it was all done in the spirit of fun and being silly. There have been several letters to the editor in protest, but not a word from gestapo administration. No apology, no backing down, nothing.

They never do. This administration is famous for its ridiculous and disgraceful decisions, and heresay, rumor, and innuendo are their doctrines. They really don't care about proof otherwise, either.

This is the system that promotes the principal and fires the secretary, whenever they're caught with their pants down, remember?

This is the system that would not punish a group of boys for harassing another boy with the "n" word, because "in this community, that's just how a lot of people talk, and the boys didn't know any better." Right. In the eighth grade.

This is the system that said it was all right for the boys to wear bullet belts, because most of them were hunters and "that's how we do in these parts."

It's a shame. It's a travesty.

It's home.

How embarassing to live here.

Oh, and I'm in a kind of bad mood tonight. Why? I have no idea. I just am. There really are many lovely people in this community; I am just saddened by what's NOT being done. Injustice is hard to bear. Or should be, anyway.

Tomorrow I'm driving up to the city to take a short course in using "Blackboard" so I can teach some hybrid courses this summer.

Yes, "Blackboard." I just can't figure out what the long white sticks of chalk are for, and some professors are going to show me how to use them.