I was in a good school a few months ago . The first clue to this was the enormous classes. I had classes of 48 on rooster. (Isn't there a cap of 34?) 42 on average showed up. I didn't have enough chairs and was teaching solo. It took five minutes at minimum to walk down the hall. If you had to take the stairs, you were in real trouble. The kids had no where to go, so their free time was spent on the stairs. (Also a common place for the unwelcome ATRs.) What got me thinking about this? Yesterday, I watched Soylent Green for the first time since 1975. All year round heat waves, food shortages, dead oceans, extreme poverty and extreme over population (40 million in NYC). Tonight's weather report struck me. An expected 3 degree spike in temperature expected for this summer. That's downright frightening.
42 students? What school was this and why wasn't the class sizes grieved? I've been in plenty of "good" schools and I have never seen a class of that size. Is this school filled with newbies who are unaware they can grieve or are too scared to grieve???
ReplyDeleteThe entire staff was new. Even with 42 it was better than having 5 kids in many of the places I've been. They'll be 50 in a class once the teacher shortage hits.
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