Duh and ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Two completely separate stories. Let's start with the "Ms. L as intellectual" part.

There is an article in the NY Times, published a few days ago, about Teach for America corps members and civic engagement after the corps. The long and short of the study: TFA corps members who completed their 2 year commitment were less civic-ly engaged than people who quit TFA or people who got accepted but didn't join. (But still more commited than people who didn't even get in.) Okay, what? I'll tell you right now, I'm pretty engaged. I STILL WORK IN MY PLACEMENT SCHOOL. Hello? I'm pretty sure I'm working tirelessly to close the achievement gap...isn't that engaged enough for you?

Oh wait. Let's look more deeply at the study. They say that TFA alums are "not taking their civic commitments beyond the field of education." WELL DUH! I could tell you that. I joined TFA because of EDUCATIONAL inequality. All we did for two years was teach. Of course I'm going to be involved in education. Why on freaking earth would I go do something outside of education? I work 11 hour days. Sometimes 12. I DON'T HAVE TIME TO BE CIVICALLY ENGAGED IN SOMETHING ELSE. DUH.

Let's also discuss that I work for the federal government. How much activism can I do as an individual when most of my day is spent as an employee? We all know I'm not going to instil my beliefs on my kiddos - its not right and its rarely legal. So study, I'd like to say, duh. I'm not going to sign up people to register to vote right now. I'm in the classroom. Teaching their kids. SO MY STUDENTS CAN GO REGISTER TO VOTE AT AGE 18.

Thanks, one of my favorite bloggers, for defending TFA here. He has some more data. And good articles. And it makes me laugh that he says we're not becoming astronauts.

Now part two: my work day.

Ahhh...only a few more days where we have to play "who gets a seat?" in my classes. (You know, because we don't have enough desks. Or space. For that many 7th graders). The Queen and Power Trip have spent the past few days rearranging classes. Or something. All I know is I keep getting phone calls during instructional time (not just like, at the beginning or end of class. No. Like right when I'm trying to instruct. Countless times. The phone rang over 10 times during ONE class period.)

So the story is not about the scheduling, but actually about the phone. Since I don't answer the phone (my kids can do it, I don't like being interrupted, they can take a message, most of the time they can listen to a person ask for a name and repeat the name to go to the office, unless you're the Queen or Power Trip I'll rarely come to the phone) I had 7th graders running at the phone every 2 minutes to answer it.

One phone call, Word Vomit answers the phone (apparently, giving him jobs in class is supposed to shut him up and make him feel important) and goes..."Ms. L's class, student speaking. What...who? I don't think so. No really. Okay, I'll ask. Is Yada Yada here?" We all look at him and go: "No. Who is Yada Yada?" He turns to the phone and says: "No, she's not here. No, I swear she's not in the room. I don't know her." He looks at me with this puppy dog face and goes: "She wants to talk to you."

So I go to the phone, pissed that someone is bothering me, and its another teacher. This teacher firmly says, "I NEED to speak to Yada Yada." I said, "Seriously, I have no idea who that is. There is no way she is in 7th grade." The teacher, you can tell, turns to someone and goes, "Are you sure your sister is in 7th grade?" The girl peeps, "yes." and then I go, to my class, "Guys, who is this Yada Yada? What grade is she in?" "Ms. L," someone peeps up, "She's in 8th grade. She's the blonde one. You know her." (Right, because I actually do know the one blonde 8th grader. In our school, its rare to have blonde hair.)

I repeat this to the teacher, appaled that the little sister didn't know what grade her sister was in. The teacher apologizes profusely and I hang up. Then, to add insult to injury, Teeth yells out, as everyone else is silent, "Oh that girl. Yeah, I smoke pot with her all the time."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW? "Teeth, get out of my classroom," I say. "That was inappropriate."