oh yeah. I shouldn't know this but since I do... it is impossible to punish bad teachers. Even teachers who have done terrible thigns such as dismantling computer labs because they felt like switching rooms. Even when said lab had been set up over the summer at hundreds of dollars in per session time. The boss can barely place a complaint letter in the file. Even if he can, the letter cannot be used against him or read for that matter by any one with enough clout to give flying fuck. It is a pathetic system. Yet, I would not work there without it because the administraters will stop at nothing if there is nothing stopping them.

The give and take makes for some interesting theater. Take M, whose professional period (200 minutes of non-teaching slave labor that we are required to do because we are professionals? I've never understood the rationale for this job outside of our job and I never will). She has managed to pull of the job of "fun coordinator"---creating weekend outings and beer bashes on the clock. What media would NOT want to run away with that shit? It's too good to be real. But it's real.

Meanwhile, I cannot be paid for attending the weekly "cabinet" meetings. Navel-gazing fests where the self-rightous bump heads in a "me, me me" race to the finish line. Oh, when the stakes are low, how subterranean we do become. I tried every manipulation conceivable last year to avoid those meething and I was fairly successful--attending only two. This year, unfortunately, my luck runneth dry. I plan to take copious notes for this blog as my saving grace. Beats cafeteria duty or deaning. Beats coordinating the parent newsletter that won't be read. Or pushing-in to a classroom where I'm not wanted.