It's not the kids...

It's all the other adults that are in an around a school building.


For starters the custodian started the snow-blower this morning in the basement. For those of you may not know, my classroom, the space where I must teach and children try to learn for 6 hours a day, is in the basement. So it reeked of exhaust for most of the day. A parent dropped off her cherub and complained to the principal that I had the window open. The principal then told me to close the window, despite being aware of the exhaust situation.

Then I had to take a child to the nurse for some yucky possibly infectious mark on one of my students. She asked the student what happened and all he was able to do was point to the mark in question. She told me to ask him what happened and he responded the same way. They nurse then let me know that she couldn't possibly treat him if he couldn't communicate what the problem was. Considering his extremely young age and his disability, how would she have liked him to communicate the cause or reason for this injury?

And as if two incidences of annoying adult behavior are not enough for one day, there is yet another. I understand that "times are tight" and budgets need to be cut. I understand that schools are unfortunately not exempt from these tight, budget cutting times. So in order to save money the principal announced late in the day a "revised cleaning schedule". Basically the rooms on the first floor will get cleaned Mondays and Wednesdays and the rooms on the second floor will get cleaned on Tuesdays and Thursdays and all rooms will be mopped on Fridays. And we come back to the issue of the basement. When exactly will the basement be cleaned? Not just my room, but the other classrooms in the basement, the cafeteria, library, therapy rooms, and the bathroom? We have had a pest problem at least as long as I have been working there. At least half of the students in the school have to eat lunch in their classrooms every single day. Some kids, including mine, eat breakfast AND lunch in their classroom every day. Even though I do my best to clean each day, I am sure I am not perfect and that the other teachers are not either. It would seem to me that in order to prevent pests and general nastiness, that no single area of the building should be left off the cleaning schedule.

Tomorrow is another day, possibly filled with saner adults