I just wanted to make sure the parent I was emailing was the right contact
The kid gets in trouble because he literally will not shut up about some
Party over the weekend that apparently other preteens got drunk at
Separate problem all-together, but now he’s been asked five times
Focus on your work, stop talking, get to work, stop talking, turn around
So I move him and email his parent, but the last names don’t match up
Our database is slow and there’s eighty important things to get done
So I ask to make sure I’m getting the right person. Somehow that becomes
I asked who his real mother is, and he texts his mom and goes to an AP
I’m just trying to hold a kid accountable for being disruptive and so he twists it
So the mom will turn against me and get upset and not punish him
When she should be upset he’s failing multiple classes, cheating, sneaking in to
Girls houses and generally throwing away his chance at an education
This is why I’m going to quit teaching, this right here, what should be simple
Becomes an ordeal because kids lie, parents deny, and there’s no listening
To a man begging you to understand that shortcuts get you nowhere in the end.
11.13.19
Teachers I love leave the classroom
Faster than the desks falling apart
Administration cowers to lying parents
Natural consequences be damned
We, the teachers, have no one watching
Our backs, besides each other, anymore
There’s no point in staying on to see how
Bad it will get, there’s no place for me
11.6.19
My wife and I don’t know how we’ll make it month to month
We work full time, pay our bills, scavenge every penny
Yet debts add up, stacking crap on top of bullshit mountain
An American dream of shitty insurance and a million ways
To die a victim of late-stage capitalism gone amuck
Everyone has two full years of income already owed
A one percent sucking the marrow from our bones
Fearing the masses wake from media-induced comas
Devour the rich whole, it’s the only thing they’re good for
We have the numbers, burn them alive in their fancy homes
11.5.19
‘Teacher Shortage’ is a misnomer
We’re burned out and giving up
When admin doesn’t back us
Because parents scare them
And the county only worries
About going viral and lawsuits
Meanwhile, the kids don’t believe
That natural consequences exist
Why should they, when leaders
Get away with murder, live on TV
11.3.19
We’re burning out
like the last embers
of an autumn fire
before all is lost
up in smoke along
with the dreams of
making a difference
because the kids
don’t deserve this
and they know it
their parents would
rather be upset
at the e-mail sender
than profane misogynism
coming from
a thirteen-year-old
when administration does
nothing more
than cower before
threats of legal action
because no one
believes in allowing
natural consequences
to play out in
lives, anymore