This just in!

Anybody know why the paragraphs aren't registering spaces?

I am so lucky - I got a good nap in today. Of course, it was after I had an astonishingly normal (read: typically annoying) day at work today. For the first time since its inception, I didn't dress for PJs and Pancakes day. We were short a caregiver. One class had to triple up, maxing out at 22 kindergarteners in the class, until an adult made it to the other two classes. In one case, the teachers just breezed in an hour after everyone arrived. In another, there never were teachers; nobody came to teach that class, so it wasn't until the caregiver arrived from her first assignment that those kids were moved.

This is typical. They complain about the cost of providing an adult in every room, and move to teacher volunteers. Which would be great in a setting of typically 7-8 kids. We get 13-20 in most of the classes. It would also be great if teachers were there to greet the kids when they arrived so that the kids wouldn't feel shuffled around from room to room. Most teachers arrive after the kids do lately. So I have one classroom with one paid worker and 22 children that should have been three classrooms with 2-3 adults each. Theory and practice are definitely two different animals, but nobody admits that.

And it isn't like they're being paid a pittance and we can't find people. They pay $12 an hour for these teenagers. We could find them. You can't make that on almost any other starting job. But because the place is what it is, they tend to hire church members' kids, who feel a sense of entitlement to the job once they get it. That's sad enough. But you have to really REALLY screw up badly to get fired. I've only known it to happen twice; once through three years of complaints FINALLY getting through, and even then there was some sort of incident I'm not sure about, and once through attrition. It's hard to fire someone when they just stop coming, so I shouldn't even count that.

On top of the teacher volunteers, they instituted a parent volunteer program a couple of years ago, where each parent takes a turn in the class for the worship hour. Great idea. Except during the worship hour, all the kids are transported into another building, up a flight of stairs, and down three hallways to an enormous room with a hundred other kids. There's no one in charge of that room; it's just a bunch of adults sitting on the perimeter and a mosh pit in miniature in the middle. Well, I admit it isn't always that bad, but some days it's insane. Few parents have felt bold enough to go correct dangerous behavior. Then the late parents who sign in up there make it even more complex, as the parent volunteers now have to remember all the new kids who came in late, and remember to get them back to the classroom too. Even the architecture of the room comspires against order, with half-walls set 4 feet high with an occasional porthole just large enough to fit a wiggly kindergartener. They might as well have printed on them:

Dear Curious Kindergartener,

Please enjoy these lovely half-walls; they are here for your climbing pleasure. Oh, and don't forget to partake in the delights of squeezing through the portholes to slip out the back of the room, threading yourself through all the portholes in turn, hiding in the portholes from your assigned caregiver. We are here to make your worship experience all it can be!

Sincerely,

The Half-wall

I swear, I'm gone when the December schedule is done. I've said it for two years, but this time, I've totally had my fill. I am so done.