So I have a small problem with authority. Well, not so much authority itself, but people "with" authority who feel that it is their place in the world to speak in condescending tones when approached by "lowlier" peoples. Unfortunately as a supply teacher, I've found that I'm prone to experience this tone frequently. Part of the reason I became a teacher was because I had put up with so much crap as an office bitch while temping my way around the world.
I simply wasn't expecting it as a teacher. I guess people look at supply teachers as people who can't get proper jobs? Or something along those lines...whatever it is, apparently it leads inevitably to them assuming you are somewhat incompetent.
Last week I had mopped up a huge puddle by the water station in a nursery class, but the floor was still dangerously slippery. I asked another teacher for a rag to get the remaining water with, and she responded by picking up the mop and saying "This is what we use to clean up water, dear." Oh really?? Thanks so much, I've never seen one of them contraptions before.
I guess some teachers are so used to ignoring their kids that they also ignore anything the fill-in support people say. Or so it would seem...
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Life as a supply teacher in London...full of whining, poking, tattling, screaming, and swearing. Enough to make the sound of children laughing feel like nails on a chalkboard.
3 comments:
1) When someone calls you "dear", just use it right back at them, as in "thank you so much, dear". Love works just as well.... If not better.
2) Don't forget: you have the power to flick the lights on and off at will. (With great responsibility comes great power. And yes, I'm getting it backwards.)
oooh, i'd love to 'dear' them right back, but i'm attempting to tone down my natural sarcastic instincts. in the slight, small, off chance that i could end up working in that school again, i'm trying to keep all my bridges well supported.
but i like your thinking...
I too, have an awful time with being "talked down to." The older you get the more difficult it seems to get (at least for me). As you get older, more and more of your "superiors" tend to be younger than you are and that makes things even more aggravating. I cannot control my sarcasm either. I am quick to retort "I graduated with honours from university, do you think I am too dumb to understand how to do laundry?" I was working at a military base laundry for the cadet camp one summer between semesters. I was a "mature" student at university and this was a summer job. The job became routine and dull by the second day on the job and I missed a step in the process of packaging the individual's laundry (there were several steps in packaging and tagging the laundry bundles). The fact was my mind was wandering to less mundane thoughts and I slipped up on a detail. The result was a "lecture" by someone half my age. Grrrrrr!
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