Poem: March 20, 2019

Reinforcement

Some kid looks you dead in the eye
and pisses himself on purpose because
he doesn't want to be in your class today,
or maybe it's some other darling who,
for the fourth time this week, is licking
his pencil and wiping it on the new girl's
arm, like all over her arm, and her parents
barely speak English so explaining to them
that their daughter is being victimized
by the the gross kid who doesn't get that
this is not an acceptable way to make friends,
or explaining to them that classrooms can
be sticky places and that they didn't
adequately prepare us for this scenario
in teacher school isn't even remotely likely
to make sense, even if the district listened
for once and provided the interpreter
that we requested at the beginning of the year,
and maybe if they had to spend even
one day dealing with what we do, they
would understand what it's like to teach
in this day and age rather than spending
their time coming up with new ways
to make our job harder. I mean, what do
they do down there anyway? They're
definitely not listening to the people
on the front lines which isn't even the worst
part of all of this. What would really help
is if these parents would just raise their kids
with the basic skills and social graces
to at least be functional in a setting where
there is so much curriculum to cover before
another damn round of state-mandated testing
that, no, there isn't room in the school day
to "be creative" or "have fun." Wouldn't that
be nice? To maybe, just maybe, step back
and realize that everybody is stressed out?
And now they want us to collaborate
and "focus on the work" in teams, but you
tell me when that is going to happen when
just this morning I had to cover bus duty,
then make copies because the copier
was down again yesterday (and I was not
about to go spend my own money
last night, making copies at Office Depot),
and then the kid peed himself. Peed. Himself.
Right before reading block, and I'm trying
to air out the room, deal with the kid, and
wipe up the mess with paper towels I bought,
and yeah, I'm pissed because it seems like
no one cares that I've got 12 out of 28 kids
with diagnosed ADHD, and at least 3 more,
who have it, but whose parents refuse
to have them tested because they "don't believe"
in medicating their kids, even though they are
demonstrably incapable of sitting still or
of paying attention long enough to even
complete a single math study guide, probably
because they are allowed to be in front of
a screen at all hours of the day and night,
which explains, if you want to know the truth,
why I've had 3 full-blown panic attacks
at work this semester, and it's not just me.
Look it up. The use of anxiety meds and
antidepressants among educators is for real
at an all-time high. I know of at least eight
of my colleagues alone who can't make it
through the day without prescription-level
help, and most of the time, I seriously wonder
if it's even worth all of this when society
clearly doesn't value what we do, because
if they did, they'd pay us more, but they don't
because they're all cheap bastards who
don't know the first thing about it, and who
just want to dump off their kids like school
is some kind of cheap day care, and I,
I want to know what you're going to do about it.