We're Entering Week Four

I don't like blogging about work. It's boring as hell. I also hate focusing on what's wrong at school, that is, inevitably, what happens. This year I'm seeing my kids, and some of their parents, and how quickly so many immigrants, illegal or not, adapt to the legal system in our country.

I sent a note home with one of my kids yesterday that said he was talking and then rolled his eyes when I corrected him. Frankly I don't remember if he did or not, and I wasn't really mad, it's just the rules. And, because the educational system has become so hyper-legal, it serves as easy documentation. In the past I've just become infuriated and then when I yell or have the kids call or try to write a referral to the office, they have all this damning evidence that I'm a horrible person. Did I mention that I'm usually reducing them to tears in front of the entire class? Not that tears is my goal, kids to day are just pussies. That's right, I said it. But we'll get to that in a bit. So this mother shows up with her son in my class and her son who's older to interpret. Remember that her son (in my class) is in the bilingual program, that would make me...wait for it... bilingual. Since we're in Texas you can guess, speculate or imagine that I'm not a German bilingual teacher. The better part of all of that though, is that most Mexicans (or Hispanics) expect a bolillo like me to speak Spanish well and with a trace accent. This can either be really disarming or intimidating.

We talked and she was very nice but wasn't going to sign the notification because she disagreed and her son said her didn't roll her eyes. Damn! I forgot to write it down in my notebook! And school was starting! Talk about hit and run. So now already caught a little off-guard, when she wanted a copy I didn't know exactly what to do. SO I wrote on the paper that we had conference and then she could keep it. She still wouldn't sign it. That's cool though. When I have to write her little hoodlum up, I still wrote that I talked to her, so my boss will be more likely to have my back.

The question is, where the hell do folks who can hardly speak English find out about signing documents and admitting to responsibility or not admitting to anything? While we're on that vein why does our society provide more protections for illegal immigrants to begin with? As a teacher I understand not deporting kids from school and providing Title I funds to feed the children. There is no oversight. There are no consequences and it enables an atmosphere of entitlement with no recourse. Gimme mentality will lead Texas and then the United States, to have an under-educated, non-taxpaying, workforce. Lower wages, higher welfare and in the end the burden for many upon so few. We may very well return to a United States that looks something like the US during the Industrial Revolution. There won't be any Carnegies or Rockefeller's, they didn't have income taxes or Social Security or Medicaid and Medicare. But we're protecting the poor, the tired the huddled masses, so it's all good.