2. Let It Be a Challenge
INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION
FROM: Mrs. Beatrice Schachter, Room 508
TO: Miss Sylvia Barrett, Room 304
Dear Syl—
Welcome to the fold! I hope it goes well with you on this, your first day. If you need help, just holler; I'm in 508.
What's your program? Can we synchronize our lunch periods?
Fondly,
Bea
* * *
INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION
FROM: Miss Sylvia Barrett, Room 304
TO: Mrs. Beatrice Schachter, Room 508
Dear Bea—
Help!
I'm buried beneath an avalanche of papers, I don't understand the language of the country, and what do I do about a kid who calls me "Hi, teach!"?
Syl
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INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION
FROM: Room 508
TO: Room 304
Nothing. Maybe he calls you Hi, teach! because he likes you. Why not answer Hi, pupe?
The clerical work is par for the course. "Keep on file in numerical order" means throw in waste-basket. You'll soon learn the language. "Let it be a challenge to you" means you're stuck with it; "interpersonal relationships" is a fight between kids; "ancillary civic agencies for supportive discipline" means call the cops; "Language Arts Dept." is the English office; "literature based on child's reading level and experiential background" means that's all they've got in the Book Room; "non-academic-minded" is a delinquent; and "It has come to my attention" means you're in trouble.
Did you get anything done in homeroom today?
Bea
* * *
INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION
FROM: 304
TO: 508
Dear Bea—
I checked off 21/2 items from some 20 on the list of things to be done.
A boy fell off his chair.
Nothing in my courses on Anglo-Saxon literature, or in Pedagogy, or in my Master's thesis on Chaucer had prepared me for this. I had planned to establish rapport, a climate of warmth and mutual respect. I would begin, I thought, with First Impressions: importance of appearance, manners, speech, on which I'd build an eloquent case for good diction, correct usage, fluent self-expression. From there it would be just a step to the limitless realms of creativity.
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That's what I thought.
What happened was that I didn't get beyond the B's in taking attendance. And I forgot to have them salute the flag, and I have an uneasy feeling that it's illegal.
Syl
* * *
INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION
FROM: 508
TO: 304
You're in the clear. On assembly days they salute in the auditorium. What's illegal now is the Bible reading.
Bea
* * *
INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION
FROM: 304
TO: 508
Dear Bea—
What does the SS stand for in Eng. SS? Secret Service? Social Security? Sesame Seeds? Super-Slows?
Syl
* * *
INTRASCHOOL COMMUNICATION
FROM: 508
TO: 304
You're warm: special slow classes. The new teachers are stuck with the toughest assignments. Don't despair—by the time you get to be my age, you'll earn the choicest seniors.
I see by your program you're a "floater"—that means you travel from room to room. Insist on a desk drawer of your own in each room where you
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teach; if not, get a strong-armed boy to lug your things.
You have Hall Patrol—that's a cinch now that we have Aides to help with the non-teaching assignments. It means walking up and down the corridors and stopping kids without passes. It's a higher-class job than Cafeteria Duty, but carries less prestige than the Book Room or Staircase Patrol. All of us have one such "building assignment" a day, besides five teaching classes, a homeroom, and one "unassigned" (don't ever dare to call it "free") period. Those who play their cards right are relieved of homeroom, or even a teaching class, by becoming Lateness Coordinators or Program Integrators or Vocational Counselors or some such thing. We also have a lunch period. Yours, I see, is at the end of the third period, which means we can eat together on Wednesdays. Your gastric juices must start to flow at 10:17 a.m. It's a challenge.
Bea
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