Thinking Back over My Career

[cimarrondfw]

Mrdreamjeans has suggested a topic by asking how satisfied I am with my work/job. Of course, I am long past regular workdays. I retired early at age 62 in 2003 at the end of the first semester from an Oak Cliff high school because I was miserable in that particular setting and had absolutely no administrative support. I am not sorry. It was the

Comments

[mrdreamjeans]

Thanks for making such a thoughtful response. I find this all fascinating. I don't know how teachers do it anymore. They really are expected to be teachers, parents, disciplinarians ... The students have so little respect for their teachers, and without administrative support, there is not much teachers can do.

I was listening on MPR to a harrowing tale of how gangs have taken over Acapulco ... They are threatening to behead teachers who do not hand over 1/2 of their salaries to the gangs ... extortion pure and simple ... Teachers are refusing to go to school and the schools have been shut down. Right after the the report aired, some schools reopened. At the gates of one school were six heads rolling on the ground. Extreme, yes ... heartbreaking.

At my property we had two women and 10 small children come in to use the pool a few weeks ago. Our pools are for our residents and their guests. There are rules and regulations, because as a private pool, there are no lifeguards. We ask for ID and the rule is an adult for every three children. Our concierge, a 70 year old woman politely asked for ID and the woman went off on her. The woman turned to me and I confirmed that we had to confirm they were residents and that the rule was an adult for every 3 children for safety. We asked everyone who lives on the property the same thing.

The woman looked at me and said, "You're a racist. You just don't want our little black babies in your pool!" I politely reiterated that we applied the rules equally and if she was a resident she would know that." She started cursing me. I told her, "You know, there's a racist here in this room and it's you. You are making the judgement that because I am white that I'm discriminating against you. That's harmful to your children. The rules apply to everyone equally. Now, it's obvious you're not a resident. I suggest you leave, as you're on private property." The room was full of hispanic, black and white people who saw this exchange. Everyone applauded me for handling it as I did. I wasn't going to let my co-worker be bullied and I certainly wasn't going to make an exception.

I watched the two women and 10 kids walk down the street with the woman cursing and making obscene gestures at me. What lessons of hate was she teaching her kids? They went right down the street and off the property. As I suspected, they were not residents at all. I don't care if people are purple and pink stripes, but it is frustrating and heartbreaking that the race card is slapped down so easily.

*sigh* ... What to do in such a crazy world?

[cimarrondfw]

I don't know how much to blame it on race. You certainly handled your pool situation correctly. For a while, I think, white flight following desegregation created its own problems in the schools. Too many private schools were created to avoid the responsibility of keeping quality in the public schools--the very source of America's greatness. I'll have a bit more to say in a later post.