Brookswood
Senior Member
One of my favorite sayings comes from an old timer in the family:
He was referring to people who are self-riotous, pompous and always ready to point out the imperfections in others while ignoring their own many faults.
I thought I might be interesting to share stories of these types of people. Anonymous of course, and let's try to avoid political issues just to keep things sane.
I'll start with a story from my working days.
As a K12 teacher I was used to working long hours. It is simply not possible to do a good job within our official contract hours. (Yes, I know this is true for many of us in many types of jobs. What else is new?) A friend of mine, Ed was president of the teacher's union, and had been dealing with issues brought up at the school board meeting. A concerned citizen had parked his car in front of the various teacher's parking lots at the schools and photographed numerous teachers leaving early. Of course, there are many reasons to do so such as going to a meeting at another school building, attending a required class at the district office, meeting with administrators to discuss student issues, leaving early with permission to pick up a sick child, etc. And, yes there were probably a few people who snuck out early now and then for no good reason. But very few in my experience. I was shown as one of the guilty people. But as a part-time teacher my 'official' day ended an hour before the end of the student's school day. In reality the photos confirmed I was putting in a lot of unpaid overtime.
A few days after another school board meeting where more 'evidence' of cheating teachers was shown by the concerned citizen, Ed walks into the staff room with a Watermelon Grin on his face. He hands me an memo from the Superintendent and tells me to read it. The demand on it was simple. From that day forward "All teachers will work their contract hours. Period. No exceptions except for a serious emergency". I looked at it and smiled. That meant no more taking work home, no more late days in the classroom preparing for tomorrow's lessons, no more staying late for staff meetings, no more staying late for parent meetings, no more after hour 'required' classes that went past quitting time, no more coming in early for conferences with parents on their way to work. GREAT!
After two weeks of everybody arriving and leaving on-time everyday, the superintendent withdrew the memo.
He was referring to people who are self-riotous, pompous and always ready to point out the imperfections in others while ignoring their own many faults.
I thought I might be interesting to share stories of these types of people. Anonymous of course, and let's try to avoid political issues just to keep things sane.
I'll start with a story from my working days.
As a K12 teacher I was used to working long hours. It is simply not possible to do a good job within our official contract hours. (Yes, I know this is true for many of us in many types of jobs. What else is new?) A friend of mine, Ed was president of the teacher's union, and had been dealing with issues brought up at the school board meeting. A concerned citizen had parked his car in front of the various teacher's parking lots at the schools and photographed numerous teachers leaving early. Of course, there are many reasons to do so such as going to a meeting at another school building, attending a required class at the district office, meeting with administrators to discuss student issues, leaving early with permission to pick up a sick child, etc. And, yes there were probably a few people who snuck out early now and then for no good reason. But very few in my experience. I was shown as one of the guilty people. But as a part-time teacher my 'official' day ended an hour before the end of the student's school day. In reality the photos confirmed I was putting in a lot of unpaid overtime.
A few days after another school board meeting where more 'evidence' of cheating teachers was shown by the concerned citizen, Ed walks into the staff room with a Watermelon Grin on his face. He hands me an memo from the Superintendent and tells me to read it. The demand on it was simple. From that day forward "All teachers will work their contract hours. Period. No exceptions except for a serious emergency". I looked at it and smiled. That meant no more taking work home, no more late days in the classroom preparing for tomorrow's lessons, no more staying late for staff meetings, no more staying late for parent meetings, no more after hour 'required' classes that went past quitting time, no more coming in early for conferences with parents on their way to work. GREAT!
After two weeks of everybody arriving and leaving on-time everyday, the superintendent withdrew the memo.
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