When Did Things Get So Crazy

When I listened to my phone messages Friday evening and heard that if we let our classes have end of the year picnics, we would be fined $1,000.000 each, I knew that things had gone way to far in public schools. I am all for teaching kids about nutrition and eating right, but this isn't about eating right.  This is about money and power. The following is my opinion, which as a public school teacher, I am not suppose to have an opinion or an original thought in my head, but here goes. I figured this out a long time ago.  My job was not really about taking care of and teaching my class, but rather about making my direct supervisor look good, which happens to be the building administrator or principal. This generally entails staying in my room, keeping my mouth shut, having no thoughts or opinions, and not sending any discipline issues to the principal and ruining their day. The principals job is keeping the county superintendent happy with good test scores and few discipline problems.  The superintendent's  job is to keep tax payers and politicians happy which in turn keeps money flowing into the school system, which in turn keeps the state department and state superintendent happy.  The state superintendent has to keep the feds happy to keep federal dollars flowing towards West Virginia's 55 counties.  Kids not eating school lunch effects federal dollars coming into the county for free and reduced lunch. 4th grade teachers taking field trips and having picnics effect the school lunch program, that in turn effects money refunded to the county. I was trying to explain all of this to my doctor on Friday, when he asked me why school stresses me out so much.  He said, "Well you know, Debra, they say it all gets down to money or sex or both, so administrators get money and screw over kids."  Exactly !!!!!!! I'm not popular with administrators or generally people who don't want to hear the truth. Public schools need money to run.  They get that money by keeping adults in power happy not children. There is tons of favoritism in public schools and many unfair practices. I've been told since my early days of teaching that I would burn at the stake and many other things. One big problem I have is keeping my mouth shut. This gets me in trouble, which in turns creates stress. I might add into this equation that Preston County is a poor county and needs all the money it can get from the states and feds, but give me a break fining classroom teachers for having an end of the year picnic a $1,000.00 is a bit much. That was a month and a half salary when I first started teaching.  OH, I forgot teachers get paid too much anyway. I'm sorry but I'm really feed up after thirty years of this BS.  My doctor thinks I need to work. He doesn't like my idea of my job being watching sea turtles hatch at the beach. After this weekend, watching sea turtles hatch seems like a great job to me.  One more thing .......  if administrators REALLY CARED ABOUT KIDS, they would be in the classroom everyday teaching and having a picnic with their kids the last day of school.  JUST MY OPINION!!!!!!