Let this mark the first day I have been called into sub. One hundred big ones, here at City, my favorite school ever. My prevailing sentiment throughout the day has been God, I want to be a teacher! I have only my own lack of initiative to blame, because I could easily be a full-time teacher by now if I were just willing to relocate or apply to more schools. But I see and hear things going on here that make me thrill internally, and not anything that extraordinary�faculty banter in the English office, the cozy corner where my teacher�s desk is located, the serendipity of things gleaned from the classes I�m teaching�a video on Lewis Hines, the early 20th-century photographer who documented child labor abuses. I learned shit about immigration and the Industrial Revolution. Even the seeming tedium of lunch schedules, passing time and fire drills is like the welcome soma of warm routine, the thing we need most as the weather gets colder. Leave us to our jobs, our classes, our little rituals�give us our free time here and there and we�ll get everything done on time.

And during my free period this morning I got on the interstate and shot down to the mall real quick, to go to Best Buy and continue the research and development stage of my New Cell Phone project. Jenn and I went to the SunCom store and to Best Buy last night and I learned about the various plans and phones available to a schlub like me. It was at Best Buy that I realized I could switch to Sprint and get better service at a lower cost, and a nicer phone. I include this seeminlgy trivial information not because it is anything other than trivial or because I care about tech specs and whatnot. I include it because I am sincerely intrigued by my own susceptibility to the allure of consumer technology, espceially in light of having recently finished Culture Jam. Do I really need a new phone? No. Do I want one? Yes.

So I got a new one. I gave into the urge. It wasn�t an urge, really�it was a carefully researched decision based on the imminent termination of my current calling plan and my worn-out phone. I got a phone which, after the mail-in rebates, will be free; in fact, they will be paying me to buy it. I got a phone which will allow me to record voice memos, schedule appointments, surf the web, and play stupid video games.

Now, I�m watching the Lewis Hine video for the third time today. Last period we had a fire drill followed by fifteen minutes of the movie Amistad. I never claimed this was exciting work. But there are unforseen challenges and surprises which beguile me even after doing it for a year and a half�little glimpses of what I could be doing if I were a real teacher. I could be developing relationships with actual people�my own peers and the kids I teach. I could be developing and disseminating my own world-changing agenda, sending the next generation into the revolution to carry on my message. I could brainwash the chidren of America into eating babies and poisoning water supplies! Huzzah!

I have no loose change for a Mountain Dew.

After this, it�s off to the store. All told, it�s a seventeen-hour workday.

0 Comments

Back & Forth