Thursday, December 6, 2007

Adventures in Contemporary Education Part II

Second installment from Ekuawlim public school teacher/TKTC Guest Editor Jennifer Gromit. This is a good time to remind everyone that TKTC is a BIG supporter of public schools and an even bigger supporter of its teachers. That said, JG has found the humor in the daily absurdities of her job and I appreciate the absurd. Happy Lunch Break- on to Part II:

Last week was the EKCE tests....you know, those standardized tests
that you have to take in school every couple of years. I was in charge
of proctoring the test to about twenty students. One of my kids -- who
is usually good -- was having a sassy day and decided not to do a
whole section. I went up to him to try to convince him to work, but
walked away defeated. Ten minutes later another teacher tried and was
shot down. The principal came in and asked him to do the work and he
refused. Can you imagine? Refusing to test....to the principal's face?
I would have been dead.One of my students had his eye scratched while playing basketball. All
last week he walked around with an eye patch until it healed. A group
of students came into my room, and I thought I smelled pot. So I went
sniffing. When I got to eye patch boy, he informed me that he wasn't
smoking pot while wearing the eye patch. I asked why. He said "I don't
know...it just don't seem like a good idea to be walking around all
stoned with just one eye. Bad things are gonna happen."

There was something in the water today...the kids were crazy!! I
suspended eight kids. Eight!! One of the kids was so mad at me that he
said "Well fuck you...you....hillbilly. Yeah, you're a motherfucking
hillbilly." You know it's a weird day in the hood when the best insult
he had for me was hillbilly.
Yesterday, a girl in my fifth hour informed me that she was getting
married this June. I looked on her finger, and sure enough there was a
cubic zirconium ring on her finger. I asked how he proposed. They were
eating at the Golden Corral and she got up to go to the bathroom. He
followed her into the bathroom. He got down on both knees in the
women's bathroom in the Golden Corral and proposed. No words.

6 comments:

Susie said...

Hahahaah those are some great stories. Especially the proposal story. Wow.

So@24 said...

And this is why I sometimes wish I could be a teacher...

TKTC said...

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to be a fly on the wall in my own high school days. Then i reel in horror at the stuff that I probably came up with in the day.

So- we're counting on you to be a big time entertainment exec so we really starting getting the scoop.

Anonymous said...

Golden Corral is funny enough on it's own. The bathroom proposal just adds a whole new level of...comedy/horror/sadness.

BTW - your Nashville recommendations were spot on. I gotta get back there again soon. LOVED it! (And not just b/c I had a bird's eye view of Keith Urban at the Sommet Center...)

Anonymous said...

I'm thorougly enjoying the "Adventures" section - please continue highlights from the public school system on TKTC on an ongoing basis :)

TKTC said...

MS- Where have you been? We've (Royal We) missed you! I've never been to a GC- is it like Waffle House?

Joner- Today's posting renders that unlikely. Check back at lunch but let's just say that you might be able to offer some perspective to her on the hilarity of Catholic high school students. I'd love to keep having her.