While I couldn't agree more on schools not wanting absences so they can get their money, our district basically eliminated all suspensions. Which meant even those fighting, doing drugs, bringing unlawful items, etc were still in school. Hence why I craved an ISS. We were told to make one on our own, without pay, of…

We would never have had an ISS. That would never have worked. We were not paid for our conference hour and even so were forced to meet with our "teams" weekly and of course held conferences, covered other classes (but paid if we did so), or taught an extra period. We also did not do coverage during lunch or before or…

Elderly mother? She was the youngest mom of the bunch! Also, I think I'm older than her so *huff*.

Well, we'll have to agree to disagree. Probably best not to get into a lengthy education discussion, but I did spend 12 years in inner city public middle schools. We did sometimes have a Dean who was a voted upon teacher who was full-time discipline, but that wasn't the case my last 3 yrs. But yes, no way she's not…

I thought it ran deeper than that. A white kid in black face is definitely getting sent home, but a black kid in white face? What to do?!

What I would have done to have an ISS (in-school suspension for those not in the know)! It made me think she wasn't a teacher, but perhaps at KIPP (non-union) they force teachers to take periods/days where they have to do the ISS?

I think she really needed to maintain her sense of "I'm taking care of this" with Earn. I don't envy her having to tell him.

I think in 12 years I taught only 5 students who were even half-white. There is systemic segregation in most large cities made far worse by the money/students taken from public education by charter schools and the often times undeserved belief (particularly from white parents) that private schools must be better…

Thanks for the research. This ran against my own experience in Los Angeles in a big way. With the ongoing and upcoming teacher shortages, those 10 states may need to forego this intrusive, expensive, and unnecessary testing.

I agreed with the first part of your comment, but then you lost me. It's clear this wasn't normal behavior for her. She forgot about the drug test, true, but everything we've seen of her indicates this was a fubar. That's why it's so awful/human/funny.
P.S. I taught 12 years, and there were no drug tests ever. I…

Probably the only time a principal would openly acknowledge such a thing is when they know you're about to be gone. In my experience, there isn't much hugging either.

Having taught 7th grade for 12 years, I'd go with scary as fuck. I felt for his teacher. He reminded me of so many students…and none of them were "fun" to have in class. I completely understood why she wanted him out of class immediately.

They're my favorites too. Twinsies?

Err, 34 to 52 isn't 30 years. Maths!

I think, as ever, Jeff was just trying to rile folks up…or if not, ugh!

I'm like Ken with my love of spelling and language and vinyl…though no where near as competent, good looking, or swoon-worthy. Maybe being an English teacher has made me hate textspeak more than most.

After our mid-20s break downs and McJobs, we all just went and became *shudder* the Establishment after all. Last generation to do better than they're parents and all that or so they tell me.

Now that made me laugh!

I feel like Survivor is the only show that truly is worth having HD for!

Perhaps I'm just poking the bear here, but it strikes me as interesting how much this bothers you (because it hasn't bothered me nearly as much as brains, brawn, beauty). Is my asking which generation you're from a bridge too far?