My unit

Now I want to get down to my unit. I made a proposal sometime last spring, early, to come up with a program that would help those of our kids with special educational needs be more successful. This was not to be for the lower functioning kids as they already have a great deal of protection in place, if their parents would only use that protection. My purpose was to help the kids that actually had a clue and were very possibly able to go on, not only to college, to bigger and better things. The problem with many, is that the traditional idea of school is archaic. The. "sit in class, listen to the instructor, do the classwork and homework, go to the next class, blah, blah, blah," shit does not really work for some kids, so..... I came up with an idea. It is not original by any means as others have found some degree of success with the same concept. I only tried to tailor it to the kids I know.

Here was the "concept." I wanted to allow these particular children to work strictly on their computer curriculum and work at their own pace. If they completed a certain number of lessons, they would be able to leave or go home and work on more whatever was best for them and their parents. I have five kids last year for whom this worked very well. My thought was to expand the program to about twenty of thirty with paraprofessionals in the room for added assistance as needed. Well, let me tell you, that is not what happened. (I know, you are completely fucking shocked aren't you?)

When it came down to me, actually in May or maybe even earlier, I was not even informed. In fact, one of my colleagues, whom I think is wonderful, told me she had heard of the' "rumor," that they wanted me to run a program such as that I had proposed. When I finally asked the person with the proverbial power about the "rumor" she stated that it was a fact, BUT, it was to be done in "their" way. Of course, I immediately knew it would not be pretty. I allowed her to talk, then told her why it would not work. She wanted to put 20 to 25 kids, mind you these kids already have issues with the manner in which education is provided at the present time, in a room together (don't forget these are high school kids and some a quite large) to work on the computer. On a regular 8 foot table they wanted to put three computer and, obviously, three kids. What the fuck???? I would have freaked having to be the fucking close to somebody all day.

Then, she wanted a section for middle school and high school. I worked with middle school kids for 15 years and do not like how needy they are anymore, I know it is my advancing age, but, I digress, and I do not want to really work with them now. Se was talking about 50 each, which means 100 at a time and two shortened day sessions so about 200 kids. I worked in the high school last year and we had 7 adults, plus me and the head of high school, with less than 50 kids, AND these were the, "good," kids. How can anyone with a brain, or even 1/4 of one, think that something like what she wanted would be good for any-fucking-body? I told her that no more than 10 to 12 should be in a room and that that number was WAY to high to make it work well. She said that this was the only way to make it work. I told her that I disagreed and left it at that.
(Quickly, I did the job of high school special education coordinator last year for a ridiculously low salary and they did not even OFFER me more money to head a program of 4 times the kids. Not only was it not offered, they wanted to give me less, but that has already been discussed.)

I went through, "negotiations" with regard to salary beginning in June and lasting until into September. Each offer was the same fucking thing. I think that some money people think that the rest of us are idiots and that we will give in just because the repackage the same fucking numbers. I, for one, was not having it. In fact, when I was offered the "extra" $1000.00 for an extra 360 hours and more, I actually chuckled and asked, "You're not really serious, are you?" She, obviously, took me for some kind of imbecile that just fell of the proverbial turnip truck. I know I keep re-hashing this but, damn it, they are a bunch of penny-pinching fuck-wads. Anyway, the reason I brought this up again is that I did not agree to take the job until the absolute last minute due to the lack of pay. I offered many options of which none were agrred upon UNTIL I acted as if I were beggin. Surprisingly enough, she came up with EXACTLY what I had proposed. Since it was HER idea, though, it was OK. Enough said. (still not enough, but much better than the original "offer").

We began, as is usualy for these idiots, without having any idea what students would be where. I was told, the first day of school, that I only had 10 kids on the"books." I had at least 15 that first day and more than ten were added each day for the next five. Remember, I was the ONLY person working my unit at that time. I finally had to tell the enrollment girls to STOP. They said that they needed the OK for the owner and the "head of school" in order to listen to me. The quantity of kids with one person was, and will always be, until the imminent collapse of society, illegal, but, when you are "the most important and special person in the world," little things such as "the law" are not meant for you, only for the lower life forms (in your fucking inhuman mind). It took me more than two weeks to get some other body in my unit, though, I was promised, before the beginning of school, that I would have paraprofessionals already hired to work with my kids. OH MY! No fucking shit! They screwed the kids again in the name of the almighty dollar.


This is enough for now. I will be back to it as soon as I can.