Momma's Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be.....

 Stealing from Shotgun Willie Nelson this morning....

No, cowboys are better than this job....

Whatever you do, don't let your kids teach school.

Oh, I liked when I was doing it, but it has always had political strains within the position.....And in 2023, it is just so much worse. 

There is a growing belief among parents that they somehow " own" teachers. 

The governor is talking about parent's rights?  What is that parents telling us what we can or can't teach, that's all well and good, but there will be 30 different views on what should or shouldn't be taught.

That teacher's now are a bunch of Communists.....( I've voted GOP since 1976, and they their hated of teachers is quickly turning me against them.)

That our union is telling us what to teach.....What union? Texas has no teacher's unions. When did you see me and Taucer out in front of the building holding picket signs that said " UNFAIR?" 

That we are teaching CRT....Hell most of us don't care what CRT even is. 

There is a now a movement to allow people to chose their schools........And what is going to be taught at these school? Hell, I've seen what is going on at a number of these church/private schools.....Ain't no one learning nothing in many of these schools. 

No, not worth the $50,000 worth of debt to teach school anymore. 

No folks, tell your kids to do something else if they insist on college. 

Mr. Thomas and XXX Age 21+ School Stories

 I may need to write this in a more than one part.....

As many of you know, when I first started teaching, I did so in adult education. It in many ways gave me a different outlook on life and teaching. 

I was 24. Just a baby. Still had hair, wasn't a tub of goo, and still acted " cool." 

I taught people trying to get a GED( Good Enough Diploma, as one class of mine called it) and people trying to become U.S. Citizens. 

The first story comes from a class I was teaching an algebra class 7PM until 9PM. The majority of which were females who had dropped out for one reason or another and decided to complete school. Most want to go to LIT or Lamar. The average was 18 to 28. This class was all female.

No dress code and many dressed however. Short,shorts, blue jeans, t-shirts, tube tops . This was the 1970s and again, no dress code for adults. Most changed from their work attire to whatever they knocked around the house in and came on to class. 

We had coffee breaks( We had a 40 cup coffeemaker) and we didn't care if student sat in the easy chairs in the Teacher's Lounge. In those days, many smoked during the break. Heck, sometimes, we all walked to the store 2 blocks away for candy, chips. 

On the night, I was giving an algebra test. And I was sitting on top my desk in the front, when Debbie, my wife walked in. She was bringing me a Coke. She had been in the area and looped by. She sat on the desk by me, and put her arms around me, and put her head on my shoulder. Not thinking, I rubbed her lower back. She saw they were taking a test, gave me a kiss, and said, " You coming home soon?" To which I replied" Probably." 

No one was paying attention to the test at that point. 

Shortly after Deb left, I was a smart-aleck and said, " That's how you make an A." 

To which a tiny, nerdy, glasses wearing girl about 22-23 said, " If I'd known that, I'd had you over to my apartment after class sooner." 

To which another woman, mid-20s piped up and said, " Yeah, I can get rid of my boyfriend a couple of hours." 

I had to explain that, that was my wife and there was some confusion that I had married a former student. 

The next algebra class, before class, the tiny, nerdy girl came up to me before class and said, " I am serious about you coming over after class." 

I said nothing, and acted like she had said nothing. 

- The second group of students were the afternoon class. Most were either married, or going through a divorce, or were divorced. They were trying to get a GED to get a better job. These were ages 30-45. 

Man, these ladies had no boundaries. 

If I was sitting at my desk and they cam up for me to help them with math or English or whatever, well, their hands often wandered. And while most just put the hand on the knee, others, put their hand on the crotch. And you had to move their hands without making them mad or making a scene. 

Some saw their 24 year old teacher as a " mark" and often said, the kids go to school at 8:30.......or, my husband and kids are gone tomorrow, why don't you come over about 11AM for an hour.....or two.

Had one offer to give me oral sex in an empty class.

You've got to remember once again, I was not the old fat bald ugly teacher you got at Buna. 

And for some of these ladies, it was scary. 

Now, this wasn't every lady. Many were serious students, I helped on after she graduated go to Lamar and get her English teacher's certificate, but others, well a couple thought I was a homosexual because I did not take interest in " freebies."  

It is one of the reasons I got a high school job.

-This is kind of long, I'll tell other stories later in part 2.

 

Buna ISD & a 4 Day Week? And I Gripe at Teachers

 So, I was told by a source and all involved will deny it, that Buna ISD, like other school districts in the area will at some point take a long hard look at a 4 day school week.

Already Jasper ISD is doing it, and I am wondering at the end of the school year how much they will like it.

Last week, Lumberton ISD's School Board voted on a 4 day week for that district. It would involve going 5 days a week the first two months and increasing the school day by 10 minutes. 

Trouble is, people like me who teach a 1/2 credit course already don't have enough time to cover the subject. And an additional 10 minutes a day gives classes what? An additional 90 seconds a class? Not hardly enough to cover what you will miss on the 5th day. I would really be hard pressed to cover everything....I just could not cover it.

My understand, or we were told, it was the teachers who proposed the 4 day week. 

I would have been vocal in my opposition to the 4 day week, for the reasons I've given above.

Teachers, here is where I gripe at you.....

There are " Hills to Die Upon." A 4 day week is not one. 

Politically, it is not a change in the school year to support. Already so many people in the younger grades see the schools at a ' sitter' for the kids 5 days a week. Sorry, they just do.....And right now there is growing hatred of teachers. Politics, think teachers are paid too much, have the mistaken idea that teachers are paid during the Summers. ( We are not, the pay is divided by 12. In truth, it helps the government and taxation when you look into funding) Teachers are paid for 185 days. We receive no " vacation pay."

There are better things to fight for rather than a 4 day week, which is too divisive. 

It failed in Lumberton with a 3-3 tie. One member was absent is my understanding.

I am not sure, the administration at the schools are not pushing for the 4 day week.....Less utilities, fewer buses and diesel being run, fewer people working 5 days a week in the non-faculty realm, and they have proposed this to the teachers and used them, saying it was faculty who proposed this, when in reality, it first suggested from a "Higher Pay Grade."

Pay attention teachers. You need to understand PR and Politics. There are things needed more than 4 day weeks.

2023

 It'll be several weeks before I stop putting 2022 on dates, and I've already changed over to the " 2023 event calendar" in the kitchen so Deb and I know what doctor, dentist, other appointments we have coming up and already January is filling up. 

Big year planned here the first part of the year the Compound, as many of you know, we are booked to go to England and Wales for March/April. We got everything ready, flights, AirB&B's, car rented. 

After that, well, I don't know. 

We seriously are going to start looking at moving within the next couple 2-3 years. Trouble, we got all this crap.....May have a garage sale for some of it. 

No, we are both retired and well, the kids seem to be settled, and we may move to Ft Bend County, perhaps Wharton County, or Austin County. I really prefer a little more rural. ( The wife keeps saying something about " Being closer to grandkids" and right now the "grandkids" are only theoretical.)

I'll be honest, I like it here in Orange County, these are "my people," but if we're going to move and start  over, well, now is the time. 

Anyway, let's hope '23 is better than '22......