Thursday, June 29, 2006

There's a reason why I was always the last one chosen to be on a team at recess.

Before I get started on tonight's rant, I want to tell you that THE NEW CARNIVAL OF EDUCATION is up, and you must click over to read it all immediately. Go now. I'll wait.

La la la la la

Oh, you're back? Sweet.

See this cartoon?

I was forced to do stuff like this for over twenty years and I hated every second of it.

Do you hear me? Every. second. of. it.

I stood outside in the pouring rain and the falling snow and the freezing toe-numbing cold and the blistering heat, taking tickets and selling popcorn and saying things like "Go!" and "Jump!" and " ~~Oh shit~~ golly whillikers, was I supposed to start the clock before they started doing that?" I was given a score sheet with no instructions. I was given chalk with no instructions. I was given measuring tapes but I wasn't told what to measure. I was given large sheets of paper and big magic markers with no instructions. I was given a stopwatch; what was it for? I was given remote controls that had something to do with big electric neon things with numbers that made the crowd yell at me, with no instructions. I was put in charge of outdoor things involving ~~stupid costumes~~ uniforms and weird shoes and rules that I didn't know. I was put in CHARGE of these things.

I wasn't asked to help out. I was ordered to be there. I had no choice.

Nobody told me how these little games were played. Nobody told me where to stand, or what to write down, or who's on first. I only knew about "I don't know." And I wasn't sure where third base was.

Something I do know is that a lot of teachers quit the profession because of this kind of thing.

Funny, isn't it, that we were all required to 'do our part' in areas such as this, but if a teacher asked for some help at a concert or play or dance, that teacher got a lot of blank stares and no office backup whatsoever. Sometimes, people laughed.

During those last few years at the public school, teachers were no longer required to do all the athletic gruntwork; what a reeee-leeef.

Did I mention that I hated every microsecond of it? Did I mention that I'm still bitter? Did I mention that the very thought of some of those 'coaches' and parents makes me want to scream and yell and throw things?

I will admit that I was forced to run the clock at a basketball game only once. I was so terrible at it, after fifteen minutes NOBODY knew what the score was. We narrowly avoided a riot, in fact.

It would have helped if I'd known the rules, and what all those strange noises and gestures meant. I mean, what did they expect? I avoided gymnasiums like the plague, normally. I don't even like the way they smell.

So yeah, I messed that game up, royally.

If I'd only known that was how to get out of it, I wouldn't have tried so hard at all the other sports things they forced me to help out at.

I didn't go to university for a million years just to stand outside in the cold and sell M&M's, or to measure how far a kid jumped in sand that had been pooped in by every cat in the county.

Let their parents do that. They're the ones who cared about it, anyway. I didn't. Let them yell at each other, instead of me.

All of my heart and soul and attention and life was directed at those same kids; it was just aimed elsewhere.

But you know, I wouldn't have minded as much if the joy had been equitable. As in, "You help me with this concert, and I'll help you with your little outdoor game."

Since it wasn't set up that way, I agree with the cats: poop on it all.