C’mon now, seriously?

Last week, the universe laughed at me.

Loudly.

Obnoxiously.

Cruelly.

I began training at an (unnamed) for-profit online university for a part-time teaching position.  They gave me voice mail and email.  So I went ahead and checked the email that had apparently been set up last month when they first decided to hire me, but before I actually had the password to access it.

In the email, dated January 19, the president announced that there had been layoffs. 

Talk about a rude remembrance!

And I will admit that, when I read it, part of me felt guilty for starting to teach there when I knew I’d be making money at a school that had just enacted a reduction in force, like the one I am already suffering through. 

But I also know that I don’t expect people to stop teaching at my old school just because they were foolish enough to let me go.  So I am continuing my training and trying to get the part-time gig because, well, it pays.  And for now, that’s going to have to be enough for me.

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Not so “super” a bowl

And, no, I’m not actually commenting on the game…I know who played in it, but I don’t know who won, and I don’t really care…

I also know that I’m far from the first person to bring this up, but I don’t care.  I just want to mention it one more time and see if it sinks in.

Teachers are so underpaid!

We do more than run around on a field and throw a ball (sometimes bad) and catch a ball (or sometimes miss it), and while I’m not exactly a fan of sports metaphors (get it, a *fan* of sports metaphors?! ha ha ha!), this one seems to work. 

In both cases, you perform.  Sometimes for fans, sometimes for people who hate you and what you stand for.  (Especially if you teach English or math…)

It’s possible to fumble or fail and still have a successful game (or class).

It takes a lot of prep and practice and training to be good at what you do, and there’s also something to be said for having natural talent. 

You have a season/semester.

But…the semester last a lot longer, and they pay is a helluva worse!

Okay, so the career lasts longer.  In fact, teachers are notorious for staying at schools for 20 or more years – but even if you add up all those years of tenure, chances are you’re still not even close to what a pro player makes in a single year.  And it’s definitely less than they make in their lifetimes.

And, again, I know that this isn’t a new argument, but it bears repeating that faculty – good faculty – do a lot more than entertain for a few hours a week. 

They teach.

They inspire.

They prepare their students to be successful.

So maybe this is all just sour grapes, but when I consider our financial priorities as a whole, I really have to wonder if bread and circuses are always that much more worthy of our spending cash.

Snow Day 2011

The weathermen spent all of Wednesday and Thursday screaming about the snow coming! Cold! Ice! Ruined lives! An inability to leave our homes!

And I wanted a snow day.  How bad is it when a teacher wishes for a snow day?  Especially since the class is only in week three?

Honestly, though, I’m not that horrified by the thought.  It’s not that I don’t want to teach – I am semi-annoyed that I now have two classes that are out of step with the third – but there’s just something about snow days.  Like when you’re a kid and you’re suddenly handed a whole day (on in my case, a whole evening).  It’s like finding time – hours of it!  And unlike Hans Moleman from the Simpsons – “I want my ten minutes back!  Never mind, I’ll only waste them anyway,” I’m good with wasting my hours away on frivolous things like cross stitch, watching TV, and reading.

So we got our snow day!  Everyone had Friday off.  And there was no snow whatsoever in our neck of the woods.