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New York, 2:00 AM
Tue Nov 17
59 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/12/09
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11/12/09
I'm just sayin'.... #merylstreep
11/12/09
11/12/09
Kind of makes you want to get a subscription to Scholastic to find out!
This is why McManus will keep her job. Maybe pro-journalists should take a tip. Get your excellent questions published by someone else online- keep the answers in your own print. #merylstreep
11/12/09
11/11/09
It's not so much a matter of how your tax dollars are spent as it is that schools aren't what they used to be. In a lot of poorer neighborhoods rage simmers just below the surface, so that events like food fights are just catalysts for expressing that despair however unjustifiably.
Bottom line? There are no winners. Just a bunch of people standing around, waiting for the other foot to drop and hope that it doesn't land on their own neck. #kidsthesedays
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11/11/09
As a former middle school teacher, gah, we "policed" the lunchroom. A disgusting job. (Watching preteens eat is a heinous activity. Not for the weak stomached.) But you mainly watched for misconduct, and yes, the start of food fights. If you’re an effective teacher, you identify the ones who started and are escalating the damn thing before it reaches maximum level; you then remove them from the cafeteria and threaten the living dog shit out of the remaining kids. End game. The best of us were able to accomplish this without physically touching the kids. Merely a "You. That's it. Clean up that table and get out. Now." (And my kids always knew "get out" meant go to the office and tell the assistant exactly why they were there and await punishment. Or I would hunt them down like the little bags of hormone-crazed sociopath they were.)
And as a teacher, if you get "spattered" by food as NYT is reporting, then, well, you haven't done your job. at. all. I’d dare some little chum-nugget to spatter my functional blazer, chalk stained trousers, or soft-soled loafers. Crazy, yo. #kidsthesedays
11/11/09
I will say that as a former Chicagoan, Calumet is a pretty nasty neighborhood, but calling in police back up for a food fight? Please. School administration fail.
The beautiful thing about food fights is that they naturally burn themselves out - when you run out of things to throw. #kidsthesedays
11/11/09
Also, you got a star. Congrats! #kidsthesedays
11/11/09
:) #kidsthesedays
11/11/09
Although I did want to face-stomp the nasty sort of cafeteria kid who fills an entire section of his lunch tray with ketchup and then digs chicken nuggets out of it. I just had to tell myself that such an act is self-punishing because no one will ever, ever have sex with that kid. #kidsthesedays
11/11/09
And nothing is worse than "turkey sub" day in the cafeteria, smelling the mix of onions and B.O., and watching them make chocolate milk/mayo/french fry machinations of the deranged and laughing about it like they just created a MOMA exhibit. I’d say, "Now eat it. No? Okay, you’re done. Take your tray up." I was harsh, but I told the truth. #kidsthesedays
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11/11/09
@sanyucat: I was "cool" too. But it was because I didn't take any shit, I asked a lot of my kids, and made them work for praise and reward. They often rose to the challenge, but yes, they were disgusting little maniacs. Some I cherished. Some I wanted to kick clear across the soccer field. The middle school years were tough and eventually I wanted other things, but still I giggle when I see one of my kids at a mall, grown as hell, and they say, sheepishly, "Hi Ms. Spirit Fingers." and after we've exchanged pleasantries, proceed to watch me walk away, like I have a tail or something. Heh.
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I'm certain you were an effective educator, in spite of my critique. #kidsthesedays
11/11/09
Also, I really believe that 90% of being an effective educator is being genuinely interested in the subject one teaches -- in my case, literature.
The other 10% is NOT HAVING SEX WITH KIDS. #kidsthesedays
11/11/09
Yes, NOT HAVING SEX WITH KIDS, was also high on the astonishing fact list, right after THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO HAVE SEX WITH THESE VERITABLE MOLD SPORES WHO BATHE INFREQUENTLY AND BLOW SNOT FROM THEIR NOSES FOR ENTERTAINMENT? #kidsthesedays
11/11/09
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11/11/09
The ironic part is that they'll be prosecuted under legislation drafted by Sen. John Blutarsky. #kidsthesedays
11/11/09
Just kidding. Tater tots have never once in human history been served at any temperature warmer than lunch lady breath. #kidsthesedays
11/11/09
The school is at fault here - they were running an open-air zoo and didn't have the brains or balls to keep order.
One of the mothers of these lovely moppets asked "Who hasn't had a food fight?" and went on about her food-throwing hairless chimp who didn't get arrested: "She felt bad seeing her friends taken away."
Did any of these little turds feel bad about the cafeteria workers who had to clean up their crap? No.
Fortunately, they've learned how to whittle carrots into dildos. A few more parings, and *poof*, it's a shiv!
Lockdown is too good for them. They should have to clean up the mess and then go and scrub the janitor's toilet at the janitor's home. #kidsthesedays
11/11/09
-1: I'm pretty sure I had no idea what a dildo was in middle school. I don't know, maybe I'm just slow. #kidsthesedays
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11/11/09
I don't care. #kidsthesedays
11/11/09
My antics were fairly benign, but they would have so gotten me in massive trouble in 2009. Jail in middle school for airborne tator-tots? Just bizarre.
11/11/09