Sabbatical Schmatical!

I had the week off this week. My school divides up our school year differently than a traditional school. We work the same days as other teachers in our district, but the original intent of our schedule was that the kids didn't go for more than two weeks at time without school. With recent summer school cuts, this doesn't really work anymore, but it does cut down on their down time. Idle hands...

The longer I work at this job, the more time I need away from it. It's not physically demanding nor is it particularly educationally demanding. The kids rotate through so quickly, I can easily repeat projects twice, three time or even more during a year. There is some bookkeeping (grades, reports, etc.) involved, but I know it's a fraction of what other teachers have to do. And, believe or not, there are few behavior problems. Few major behavior problems, I should say.

So why, oh why, do I feel so burnt out?

It's the dang kids. They are SO needy. They may not be acting out in a behavior problem kind of way, but they are a bottomless pit of neediness. All of us teachers, all of their security staff, all of their case workers and counselors and parole officers and transition specialists and lawyers and judges can't make up for the fact that wherever they've come from...is a giant hole that none of us can fill. All this time and money trying to replicate a decent family, it never works. So the kid who can play Chopin like a concert pianist will probably go back to using heroin when he gets out. And the kid who always surprises me in class with his creativity will probably violate his parole again by drinking on the job.

But, enough about them! I really wanted to talk about having time off work. For me, a week really isn't long enough. I spent it doing a whole bunch of nothing. Ok, so I did a few chores, made a few cards, spayed a few cats, but really most of time was piddled away on the computer and various incarnations of Law & Order. With a sprinkling of Monty Python.

I really need a good month off. One week to decompress, three to enjoy. I'm all about year-round school with shorter, more regular breaks. It's good for the kids, it's good for me. Three months off in the summer is so 19th century.

Maybe one day I can be like this guy. Take one year off every seven years. I wouldn't even have to move to Bali.




BTW, my knock-knock joke is "South Pacific" related.

Knock-knock?
Who's there?
Sam and Janet
Sam and Janet who?
Sam and Janet Evening.

Sing it like Harry Connick Jr.