My Nose Knows I Blew It. A Rough time To Be A Teacher.

[slightlv]

17. I feel for all you teachers!

I'm not a teacher, but my sister has been one her entire working life, and at the same school since before she graduated. It's a small
Catholic school in the barrio. They were so poor, when computers were beginning to be "thing" I'd scrounge computer parts from stuff they were throwing away at work. I built an entire classroom of computers for the kids, and with the help of my DNS provider, got them hooked up to the Internet. This was just as "gui" was beginning on the Internet. Ah... those were they halcyon days for all of us, kids included. Suddenly those bottom of the list barrio kids had a class that no one else in the area had. My sister and kids built lessons together on it. The kids, their parents, and my sister were thrilled. The kids grades even went up. They were truly excited, paying attention, exploring, and *learning.*

Eventually, the Diocese got corporate backing for new computers and equipment, but sis told me it never really held the same "magic" that those built from scratch computers seemed to have. The new ones came with all kinds of rules and regulations. They got their own DNS and provider, but by that time the 'Net was getting a little too wild for the kids to explore without a Net Nanny program. These were the days of the old "Whitehouse.com" fiasco.

Hurry on to the last three years. Public schools, as well as other private schools, are kicking kids out of their schools for behavior problems. Like you, Teacher of the Year, my sister was teaching four levels in one classroom, while shepherding the yearbook and doing graduation each year. One year, the school went through 2 principals and my Sis lost her classroom student teachers after they were threatened by some of the older kids. These last two years, my Sister has had kids who have records for stealing, assault, and one was charged with murder. And yet she is still expected to teach these kids... and the kids who have lived their whole lives within the diocese. In fact, she's been teaching there long enough, she is now teaching grandkids of the kids she started teaching when she began teaching! I've met her several times on a Friday night to have dinner and give her a shoulder and an ear. I've been lucky enough to only have to teach computers and tech to grown men (that's a whole other set of stories!), and I told her I could never do what she does. My hat and heart goes out to all teachers. You are grossly underpaid for the amount of work you're expected to do, with a good majority of it on your own time. While making sure your classroom has what it needs, even if it has to come out of your own checkbook. My Sis is about 8 or 9 years from retirement. She's keeping track in order to keep heart, and praying that the R's stay out of government long enough they won't destroy SS before she can draw it. She's one of the very few people I would call a "hero."