Opus 2016-215: Tax Dollars at Work: We’re Back

School is starting up all across the country.  Current thinking is that teachers are ignorant and lazy so they need to be brought in for what are called “in service” meetings to train them properly.  We have just gone through one day in which our district was in charge and one day in which the local administration was running things.  I thought you might be interested in how we spent our first day on campus.  No?  Then think about it as how your hard earned and easily stolen  tax dollars are at work.

The morning was spent “building community”.  This means all kinds of activities that are designed to get us to share about ourselves and communicate with each other.  It was a nonstop series of ice-breakers.  At one point a room full of college graduates were crowded together bouncing balloons in the air.  There was one balloon for each adult.  If they touched the floor they were out of play.  We were then asked to share what we had learned by this activity.  I am proud of myself because I kept my mouth shut.

Then we each again took a balloon and popped it.  Inside was a piece of paper with a question on it.  We were then to find someone we didn’t know well and share the questions and answers.  My questions was, “Who do you look to as being an important influence on your life?  Why?”  Now my first response was, “Shouldn’t that be ‘whom’?”  I think I was the only one in the room that realized the illiterate nature of the typist. 

We also wrote what I think was called a “life poem” which had open ended statements that we were supposed to complete like “What I fear...” and the next one was “what I am afraid of....”  We also had a pair of questions, “What I dream....” and “What I want....”  Originality and creativity were not in the manual they got this out of.  (Yes, I know you are not supposed to finish a sentence with a preposition.)

The afternoon began with a speaker who was supposed to go 25 minutes and went an hour.  I guess we got more bang for our buck.  She was talking about children in Foster Care which was a timely topic but all she did was tells us we have a lot of them and they have issues.

We also spent time signing papers we sign every year about child abuse and emergency numbers.

All in all it was a waste of your tax money and my time.  I at least have the comfort that I got paid for the day.  For the lowest paid, first year teacher that came to $233 of your money.  As an old horse on the team I got even more.

Thank you.  188 days left.  Dig out your wallet.  Sorry, I temporarily forgot that they take it out of your check before you see it.

homo unius libri