Well, the small appliance police are descending on our school.

[southerncrone]

Today while teaching one of my classes, one of the county maintenance men came around the school with a clipboard & a chart marking which classrooms had microwave ovens, mini-refrigerators, & coffeepots.

When I asked him about it, he simply said "Don't shoot me, I'm just doing what I've been told." I understood what he meant. The cowards that are planning on instigating another tyrannical edict upon classroom teachers sent a patsy to do what they don't have the balls to do themselves. They couldn't stand the heat that we teachers would certainly give them over this silly undertaking. This is like throwing a paper-wad at a charging rhino. Will have little effect on the bottom line cost. I can think of dozens of large item wastes that are glaring, but they instead focus on our appliances.

I heard later in the day (through the school rumor mill) that we would be given the "opportunity" to pay $X per month to keep our small appliances, OR get them out of the school.

I understand that we should all be "cost-conscience", but this is going too far. My campus is over 1/2 mile long & my room is over 1/4 mile from the cafeteria. By the time I go get my food there & get back to my room, pee & wash my hands, I have about 8-10 min. to eat it. Very unhealthy to be shoving it in so fast.

I suppose my main problem with all this is that our schools are in shambles, with many minor repairs waiting to be done. This maintenance man was desperately needed in fixing the "broken" stuff, instead of "taking inventory" of our small appliances. :eyes:

Will keep you updated on whether this new "policy" is implemented.
Anyone else facing this?

[Turbineguy]

1. Maybe the plan is to get the stupid ideas

out of the way first.

[southerncrone]

13. Well, based on our "top level administrators", THAT will take many lifetimes!

[dubeskin]

2. Not as drastic in my district

We're just Pink-Slipping 100-something teachers, making the year shorter, rationing paper, and reducing lunch time.

So yeah, it's not so bad. But paying for appliances like that is ridiculous. At my school we the teachers of each department have a central pod connected to all the rooms where there are central appliances they can use.

[southerncrone]

9. I'm sorry to hear about so many losing their jobs. I'm confused by hearing

this all across the country. Wasn't the Obama budget increase in education supposed to SAVE teacher's jobs? Something smells fishy in Denmark from where I sit. We've been sold a pack of lies by someone; either Obama administration or local school districts.

I wish we had a centralized location w/appliances supplied to us. We don't even have a teacher's lounge or teacher's restrooms. Many of what-were-once-supply-closets are now classrooms! So we have basically NOWHERE to escape to.

Guess I'll learn to love peanut butter sandwiches. LOL :cry:

[elleng]

3. Paying for WHAT?

for the appliance? for the elec? Don't get it. Its a BENEFIT to the schools that teachers have these appliances.

[d_r]

4. us too

in our college faculty were told to no longer have mini-fridges or personal heaters in our offices. We were told to wear more sweaters.

[elleng]

7. Heaters I can understand for safety reasons;

fridges, well, dunno but daughter in college; school (state school) has adjusted to extra demand for power somehow.

[southerncrone]

10. Basically they'd be billing us for the electricity these appliances use.

The appliances are the property of the individual teachers, who purchased them out of their own pockets.

[southerncrone]

14. Apparently, the electricity. The appliances were purchased by the teachers

out of their own pockets....a personal choice.

This just reeks of Repuke thinking.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

5. I had to read your post twice to understand it .........

Even now, I'm not sure I get it.

You're going to be billed for - what? - the electricity your small appliances use?

Am I understanding this?

And they sent out a guy as a snitch - nice use of his time while the clock is running - so that they could know who has these small appliances?

Is that it? Or is it something I'm not understanding?

Because if that's it, it's so fucked up as to beyond normal human comprehension..........................

[southerncrone]

8. You got it.

Mind you, we have not heard the OFFICIAL policy yet, but.....the fact that they sent a maintenance man around today w/clipboard & pre-printed chart with the items microwaves, mini-fridges, coffeepots, & (I left off portable heaters in the OP) is pretty much evidence that they are "serious" about this. Later in the day I heard through "the grapevine" that we would be given the choices of: a) paying $X per appliance per month & keeping them at school, or b) take them out of the school, or they would.

So, yes, they would in essence be billing us for the electricity these appliances use.

These are our personal appliances which we purchased with our own money & brought into our classrooms, i.e. our personal property. These appliances are NOT supplied by the school. As a matter of fact, there are NO appliances available to us & no teacher's lounge or teacher's restrooms for that matter.

The really asinine thing is they walled up 2 classrooms last summer to make 4 classrooms. They are still not finished with them. The ceiling tiles are pushed aside & you can see the SKY through the roof where these walls were constructed. Don't you think THAT would be a much greater drain on the electric bill that our few small appliances?

I am sooooo tired of working for morons!

Many of us believe that this is just the latest attempt to "push teachers over the edge" so they will voluntarily quit, & they won't have to "fire" anyone. (Did I mention the word coward before?)

Although, I thought that the Obama budget was suppose to SAVE teacher's jobs. :shrug:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

11. You folks are the most important people

in the world. You are the only line of defense between us and the total breakdown of civilization.

You folks made me what I am today, and I can never thank you enough.

So, because we live through the looking glass, teachers are treated far worse than just about anyone. You are the people who should be making a big six-figure salaries. You are the people who should be getting the fat bonuses and all the benefits you can handle.

Instead, you're forced to deal with bullshit like being billed for the electricity your microwave uses.

You know, I try to remain optimistic, and I'm still thrilled that Obama won, even though some of his positions have troubled me, but it gets harder and harder to maintain that positive outlook, because I read about something like this, and my true belief just overwhelms everything else, and I think: We are doomed and there is nothing that will rescue us. It's too late.

All I can say is thank you for giving me my life, and good luck.

[southerncrone]

15. Thank you for your kind words. I wish YOUR teachers could hear them from you.

Often it is comments like yours that keep us going. It is getting tougher to stay in the trenches day to day. Schools have changed dramatically in the last 15 years.....and not for the better IMHO.

"You are the only line of defense between us and the total breakdown of civilization. ......We are doomed and there is nothing that will rescue us. It's too late."

Sadly, your thoughts mirror my own. I entered the education profession 9 yrs ago & I don't know how much longer I can remain involved in it. We have a front-row seat to the demise of the nation, yet they seem to do their damnedest to keep us from succeeding with kids. It is a sad, complex problem. :cry:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

16. I want to say to you, "Hang in there," but

that's beyond me right now. I wouldn't blame anyone who just walked out on the job. It's beyond thankless, and you're pushing that rock uphill in a feat that would even leave Sisyphus in tears.

One of things I was lucky enough to be able to do was to write to a number of the teachers who made a difference in my young life and tell them what they meant to me, how they gifted me, how grateful I was. Others - especially one remarkable English teacher who took my knack for writing and made me a writer - I visited with and told her exactly what I thought of her. She cried, and I knew my message had gotten across.

I ended up teaching in my old law school, and I still hear from some students, always a startling and humbling experience.

Of course, there was the kid I had to flunk - didn't show up, didn't turn in the paper which was half the course grade - who called me "an eclectic motherfucker," and I'm still trying to figure out what THAT meant.

Today, I don't know how anyone can enter the teaching profession. I know things have changed, but now you're supposed to teach kids the lessons that really should be handled by their parents. You're not accorded the respect you deserve, and you've got idiots in management who are as hapless as they are stupid.

Whatever you decide to do, I know you've already made a defining difference in kids' lives, and for that, you must be very, very proud..........................

[southerncrone]

18. We just wish more people had a clear insight into what we do &

under what kinds of conditions.

You've walked the walk, albeit on a much higher academic level, so you know some of the challenges. Most people won't dare darken the door of a public school these days because they DON'T want to see what is happening. Kids are enduring unspeakable horrors in their homes. This is much too common place. So many parents treat the kids as a burden they'd like to shake off...and some do, either by abandoning them, or throwing them out of the house. I have 3 kids right now that I'm aware of, who live with girlfriend/boyfriend's families because they have been thrown out of the house. Another one of my students told me that she worries everyday when she & her elementary school brother get home, they will find her mother has committed suicide. We have alerted the proper authorities, but.....

How can these kids grow up whole? They are already deeply damaged. And amidst these worries of theirs, they are supposed to learn Algebra & other subjects that must seem very insignificant to them.

Our education problem is not about "bad" teachers or "poor" curriculum, it's about "poor" family lives & "bad" societal influences. Until those are corrected, education will remain "flawed" because we are working with broken vessels. Like the kid who called you "an eclectic MF", he certainly has grown up in an atmosphere that is disconnected from reality.

I have a niece who is majoring in Elem Ed, & I try to dissuade her from this every time I see her. I think the only way teachers will EVER get back any kind of respect, is when we are no longer there to "babysit" the kids so the parents can work. THEN this society will see THAT as an educational crisis.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

19. A friend and I were talking about

what happens to kids when their home is foreclosed. Neither of us has kids in school any more, and we wondered what those poor children do.

Now, reading what you wrote, the idea that parents throw their kids out and just leave them there, well, you do what you can do, but mostly what you can do is give a kid a safe place for a certain number of hours every day.

If you have a chance, watch the new DVD of "Doubt." While it's ostensibly a story about the Catholic Church and possibly a sexually predatory priest - or not - there are scenes of the kids in classes, and an absolutely chilling conversation the Meryl Streep/Mother Superior character has with one student's mother that made me think that those days, for as awful as they were, still did the job of getting kids taught their lessons.

The parents back then did their jobs, too, of disciplining their children. And the kids lived in fear of the teachers, as my generation did, and that, you know, is not a bad thing.

I hope your niece listens to you. She's young and flexible, and she can find another major. That's an awful thing to say, isn't it? But you'd be doing her a disservice if you didn't warn her away.

You know how much luck I wish you, I hope.................. :hug:

[southerncrone]

21. I've seen the ads for that movie, I'll try to catch it...anything w/Streep is good IMHO.

I attended Catholic School in elementary school, so I have insight into that deal. Excellent educators, however the times have changed in those 45 yrs! LOL I still contend I received the best of my education in those 5 yrs. & coasted in public school until my sr. yr of HS.

Yes, the parents back then did not see the schools & teachers as their enemy, they worked together for the sake of the kid's future. Today we are considered the enemy by parents as often as not. Usually because they take the kid's failure as a reflection on them. (which it is only to a certain degree) Mostly the single parents are too busy to be "bothered" with school problems......go figure. Kids are raising themselves & have no respect for authority; we are basically the only "authority" they encounter. That is, until they get in trouble w/the law. (Which happensall too frequently.) They will cuss you out in a heartbeat. Backtalk is the norm. NEVER would be allowed on the "old days".

Thanks again for your support. Best hit the hay, so I can shape young minds tomorrow!

[Riley18]

6. We were told to get our coffee pot, tiny fridge, and microwave out over the

summer last year or they would be thrown away. We are in Central Florida where it can get pretty cold, but do not get heat. Now they are turning the air off or keeping it so high that the rooms will be getting very hot in the next week or so. The district people still have their cars, blackberries and coffee though. We just hope we don't get our pay cut next year.

[southerncrone]

12. Sounds hauntingly familiar.

Found out today that our system, which services @ 8,500 students, supplies over 60 blackberries to "staff", plus the secretary at the bus garage drives one of the schools cars back & forth from her home 40 miles per day using our gas, too. Seems she is "servicing" someone at a higher level.

I feel like a mangy dog that just keeps getting kicked around. We certainly DO NOT deserve this type of rubbing-it-in-your-face treatment.

And people wonder WHY EDUCATION IS SO MESSED UP! IT IS NOT THE TEACHERS!

[Catshrink]

17. Our district tried to to that but

we fought it and won. We used the argument that we don't have time to go to the cafeteria or staff room at lunch or between classes because we're too busy working with students, calling parents, etc. And we questioned how much power they actually used.

I guess I'm lucky to be in a very small district.

[southerncrone]

20. We're a small district, too.

Our problem is it takes administrators who can think in a deductive & logical manner; we don't have those.

[LWolf]

22. Every time there is a budget crunch.

In a couple of districts.

It hasn't happened in ours yet; we have "permission" for our microwaves, because we are in portables away from the main building. Not refrigerators, though.

My little hot water heater got shut off last spring due to budget concerns. I'm lucky to have running water in the room. I've taught in portables that didn't.

I'm wondering, when our district gets around to it, what will happen to the air conditioning units on the south side of our building. The building has no air conditioning; teachers who teach on the hotter side brought in their own portable units for September and May/June. I'm betting those will be the first to go.

I don't use my microwave for much; I have an electric kettle for hot water for tea, and I just bring a sandwich and apple for lunch. My kids are the ones using the microwave. If they can't microwave their lunches, the office will get all those calls from complaining parents, lol.