School's Out

Barbara Walters: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

 

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I deeply regret not having learned a musical instrument. And I regret not having focused more on Spanish when I was studying it in school. I would love to be able to speak Spanish fluently and play an instrument.

Well, it looks like President Obama won't be alone in his regrets as school funding in New York State continues to get slashed by Governor Cuomo. In fact, a certain local school district is considering eliminating all elementary level music and art, and all non-mandated high school courses.

I don't know about you, but I can't imagine an elementary school without art and music. Being a right-brained sort of person, these were my two favorite classes (at least when I wasn't being physically and mentally abused by the music teacher). No more putting on smocks to finger-paint or sitting in a semi-circle of tiny wooden chairs to sing "Go Tell Aunt Rhody".  Sounds like Nazi Germany to me.

Removing some non-mandated high school classes would mean deleting some of the advanced Foreign Language courses, and it is this minor detail which will negatively impact my fragile life. For my wife is a high school Spanish teacher in this particular school district, and if her job is cut we're pretty well screwed.

My wife always wanted to be an educator. I don't know why any sane person would. Imagine having to walk into a room with thirty disobedient teenagers. Imagine having to stop every 5 minutes to tell someone to stop talking or stop fooling around.  Imagine taking phone calls from arrogant parents who demand to know why their smart-mouthed little bastard was given detention or a failing grade. All this and then being paid slave wages while working around the clock grading papers and formulating fresh lesson plans.

Maybe she didn't think this career choice through.

My wife takes her job very seriously. Too seriously, if you ask me. She gets home each afternoon around 4 p.m. and spends the rest of the night doing school work. When I tell her she should just recycle old lesson plans and make it easy on herself she says that she has to keep it fresh and interesting for the kids.

Not that they appreciate it.

"Duh, why do we have to do this? It's stoopid."

But for every moron who doesn't want to learn there are a handful of kids who are grateful for her efforts. They've come up to her and told her how they’ve learn more in her class than any other. Some students have even pursued teaching careers following graduation, and told my wife it was her shining example which lead them in that direction.

Well, maybe they should think twice as well, because the educator is not appreciated in these modern times. The educator is taken for granted. And recent actions by our state government indicates our governor does not care much about the people who have chosen to devote their lives to readying America’s future citizens.

I realize this state is in a financial crisis the likes of which have never been seen and that drastic cuts need to be made, but surely they can find somewhere else to tighten the belt rather than continuing to reduce funding to schools. These actions have left districts scrambling to make ends meet, forcing them to let hard working professionals go.

My wife and the other teachers in her district took a pay-freeze last year to save a few people's jobs. But it looks like they were just prolonging the inevitable. There is no end in sight for this financial calamity. If she doesn’t get the ax this year, it could be the next, or the one after that. We are doomed.

My poor wife spent all that time earning her Masters Degree and becoming a certified Spanish teacher and now, as a show of gratitude for her efforts and her entry into such a noble profession, she is likely going to be shown the door. She did everything like you were supposed to do. She took the high road. So where is her piece of the American Dream?

If my wife loses her job my pathetic income won't keep up afloat very long. Goodbye house. Goodbye standard of living. Goodbye starting a family. We'll be back in the apartment complex before you know it, surrounded by annoyingly noisy white-trash neighbors.

My wife deserves better than this. She paid her dues. It's not supposed to turn out this way. Her degree was supposed to provide her with a solid career for the rest of her life. Hell, she hasn't even finished paying off her student loan.

We're screwed, that's all there is to it. If I had my shit together maybe I could somehow save the day. But I am a failure with no useful skills. Unless someone out there reading this blog wants to hire me for routine writing assignments, I think the end is probably near.