Thoughts at the End of the School Year

 

  Where to begin? So many thoughts, experiences and emotions are swirling around me. I feel like I'm on the Steeplechase ride at Rye Playland - the one that looks benign, but is anything but(t). I had two friends call me today to say that they were excessed from their provisional positions. Both these guys are great teachers. They swore to me they would be hired permanently, when I warned them at the beginning of the year of their impending doomed tenure.

     Some other friends have retired, also great teachers, that have been relegated to the position of subs in the ATR pool. No one even knows their names at the schools they are in, and could care less if they dropped dead (as long as it doesn't happen inside the school). Thirty odd years teaching and not even a thank you from the UFT or DOE. I used to spend the entire month of June going to retirement parties. Fare thee well, old friends.

    I also got a call this morning from a friend that said he heard a report on 1010 WINS that seemed to be blaming all ATRs (that couldn't find a position immediately) of incompetence. It referenced Mr. Mulgrew's recent statements to that effect. I haven't been able to verify the 1010 WINS story, but Mulgrew did indeed make such a statement recently. How can a union president make such a discriminatory statement about his own members? I believe it's to lay the groundwork for more discrimination. Perhaps, he'll have us go to every school building and drink the water. We've already been subjected to the torture of listening to mind splitting rap music all year long. The only thing worse is listening to a speech from Mayor DeBlasio. He has an opinion on every mundane topic and will voice it on every radio news channel, usually as I'm dodging a pot hole and/or slowing down to a crawl because of the ever present speed cameras (the teacher on the bike always beats me to school first - a modern, 'Tortoise and the Hare').

    June is a lovely month. Enjoy your summer.