"Posting up"

I taught for 30 years and one thing I hated with a passion was "posting", students standing on the wall, "posting up".   Doing  nothing but standing around talking, making rude comments, being negative, keeping up drama.  Hanging in the halls doing nothing.  Not planning to be successful in their next class.  Not planning to be successful in any class.

Most students would post up the full seven to ten minutes they were allowed to pass through the halls to get to class.  They all met on "Person Street", the intersection nearest the library and cafeteria.

The warning bell would sound and the crowds would finally make a mad dash for their designated classes.  Most students would be no where near their next class.  Students would scream; "Don't lock that door!  I'm coming."

I will not lie,  there were days I got pleasure in slamming that door in the face of the most wayward,  consistently late "scholar".  If that did not upset me enough, they always arrived without their supplies and would have the nerve to demand a note to go back in the hall to get what they needed for my class.

If I said no, they interrupted me begging for the entire 90 minute class.   Or they would beg for paper, pencil and share a book.  Sharing books was forbidden in my class. I never had a student that was able to share a book without talking and disturbing the class.

I did talk about them to their face.  After a thorough tongue lashing, I would say; "Scholars! (Sniffing the air) Do you all smell that!?  WHAT IS THAT  SMELL!?"

Collectively, the entire class would respond in one voice; "Coon!  I smell Coon!"

Should I have been fired?  I didn't say it,  the class said it.  There was the imp standing there , late as usual, holding up progress, disrupting the class,  begging for what he or she needed.

I always made very snide remarks to the enablers,  always giving away their paper, their pens, pencils, sharing their text and letting other students copy their homework.  It would infuriate me.

"Are you that lonely, that hard up for a friend?  Just wait until you need some paper."  Every now and again the most charitable student would need a favor.  Sure enough the losers they helped daily never returned the favor.

I did notice that the parasites were always the most popular.   They were the celebrities of the school.  The best dressed, the most attractive, comedic or athletic.  So much so, the lame and not so attractive would make sure they passed on the answers  to  my test or quiz questions in advance.

My students cheated so much I would spend  hours of painstaking drudgery to make four versions of the tests or quizzes .  I loved when they would copy , one would get an 80, 90 or 100, the cheater would get a zero or a ten.

Why did that make me so happy!?   They principal, the county was not about to let all the students that deserved to fail , fail.  They would be passed on.

No life.  I had no husband.  I never wanted to teach in a high school.  It was always  my greatest desire  to be a college professor.   I made the tragic mistake of sharing that dream with my mother early in life.

Life got in the way and I did a 30 year bid in the classroom, in the south, teaching social studies to mostly dullards.

I did enjoy teaching Advanced Placement U.S. History for a few years.  I "narced" on the principal that told us to hand  bubble the names  and identification numbers on  the PSAT because our students could not or would not follow directions.  The State department called him and he went after me with a vengeance.

He was a liar, he was corrupt and he was a pastor.  He was an extreme opportunist.  He was like most principals, like most people with too much authority above their pay grade.   He was corrupt  and he was extremely vindictive.  Most of the students hated him and I hated him.

He made the pep rallies so lame the students started calling them funerals because they were so dead. He forbade the drums.  The band could not play their drums at all!

Man is a corrupt being.  We are all messed up without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  GOD has forgiven me for the days I was just human.  The days I was just tired, exasperated.  Repaid evil with evil, an eye for an eye.

The truth was, we could have done better as a school.  We could have given the entire school one hour for lunch.  12 to 1 could have been lunch time.  Given  every one,  one hour of freedom.  I begged that principal, designed the plan.  He was jealous because he didn't think of it.  Refused it, tried to label me a lunatic.

I got tired of fighting.

Our  schools are getting worse and worse.   Good principals and staff harder to find.  The bullies bully and the weak surrender.  Few think critically and even fewer read.

The imps think they are winning.

GOD knows better.

PTL!

I press on    ...