Fear and Loathing at Taco Bell

We were sitting at Taco Bell over by City Place and there are a lot of signs on the doors that say "Work Here."  Considering the economy, I see that as a hopeful thing. Minimum wage has gone up quite a bit in the last couple of years and although still small is bigger than it was when I started working at two bucks an hour.  

I like to watch people.  I see the couple come in with their two year old.  He's very happy that there is a balloon tied to the high chair they pick out for him.  His mother is showing delight about the balloon and the child is also delighted.

I'm munching down on my double decker taco.  I've had an awful lot of fowl lately and want some mammal to gnosh on.  Mmmmm BEEF.  Even the bean helps beat that fowl taste out of my mouth.  Anyway, I'm munching down on the aforementioned double decker taco and I see this young woman walk in the front door.  She's got her hair in a sock bun.   She has a tattoo that stretches above her clavicle.  She's got on converse sneakers with no laces and is carrying a Coach bag.  She walks in and she's got this HOSTILE expression on her face like she is some kind of MAJOR bad ass.  I see this look on the faces of the students at my school.  I'm interested so I watch her.  She's walking the "I'm going to kick your ass walk." She goes to the counter and she gets a drink and she apparently asks to talk to someone.  The shift manager comes out and I don't hear the conversation but apparently she is seeking a job interview and wants to make sure that she comes at the right time.  The manager tells her to come a week from Saturday at nine.  She repeats it to him and SMILES beautifully. 

She turns around and she's a teenager again.  She has a smile on her face, she says "thank you" several times.  She looks as though she has some hope.

This makes me think a lot.  I see that "Hostile" look at school every day.  I didn't grow up that way.  Is that tough look based on fear?  Are these children really afraid more than hatefully ugly? 

Why are they afraid?  Are they afraid of me? 

R.I.P.

Ode to Jorge

It didn't have to be that way
People told me
That you were brilliant
Sometimes there were glimpses . . .

Mostly, I didn't see that

I saw
The pain, the fear, the longing

The justification

The wild and wooly animal like foraging
for a cigarette butt, for a drink, for whatever could take the edge off.

You scared me more and more. I think I felt your fear.  I heard it inside my own head. 

The reduction to such base instincts.

So gifted, the tales tell.  Sometimes we could sense that you were hopeful
but the downward spiral of fear dragged like the unstoppable force of a maelstrom

Swirling around and round and around again until the time

the hands of the clock stop turning

yesterday

And what is YOUR definition of SLANG?

I was walk down the hall and I smile at people. I figure that's better than "glancing daggers" at the people I pass.   I look around and take in the plethora of youthful exuberance and I look around in time to hear and SEE the word "M*****F****R" come out of a child's mouth. 

The brakes on my heels squeal and I turn to him and sadly my smile has gone and I say "Sir, that is unacceptable."  He gives me an evil look and says "What?"  I say again that his language is unacceptable.  He tells me he "didn't do nothing." 

I have a bitch button, and the quickest way to push it is to lie right to my face.  At this point, I  noticed that he was also wearing a hat inside (against the rules) and ask him to remove it.  He tells me I'm getting on his nerves. 

I asked him if he understood that the use of profanity in public can get him a pricey ticket, let alone the use inside a school building.  He also has no ID. 

I'm trying to find the teachable moment here.  He needs to take the hat off, he needs an ID and he needs to not use profanity at school....Fortunately, an administrator happened by and she was able to explain to him in very small words that HE was creating a problem by having an unwilling attitude. 

God Love Little Jimmy.  He got it.  He repeated back "I'm not supposed to cuss in the building?"  He finally understood that I didn't want to throw down with him.  It was amazing. He DID actually have some manners in the end.  He said, "Thank you Miss." 

What is kind of challenging to me is that this child has no sense of what is appropriate.  How can one get to high school without learning that it's not good to cuss at school? 

The Ubiquitous Apostrophe

I was going through the line at McDonalds near my home and I saw a really nice sign advertising for experienced Store Manager's.  This hit below the belt because I've been acquainted with the franchise owner for 35 years.  I know he knows better. This makes me wonder if he "delegated" the responsibility to someone for having the nice (obviously) expensive signs printed.  This also makes me wonder if the copy went to the printer like that or if the person who set up the printing added that apostrophe.

It seems as if I have a new "language" pet peeve every year.  Last year it was liberry and liberrian.  The year before it was "on tomorrow."  This year it is mine's.  That's just wrong on so many levels.  What creeps me out even more is that there are people with masters degrees in ENGLISH that say "Mine's are like that."

What is horrendous is that there are teachers that are MODELING this usage for their students who are not so swuft.  This is equivalent to "ye olde nail on the blackboard."  It grates uncomfortably.  I cannot imagine that ANY person with a college degree in English would say "Mine's are (referring to personal possessive)."

The adding of an "apostrophe s" to plurality is getting so prevalent in the language that it seems as if educated people no longer make the distinction.  I've caught myself doing it a couple of times which makes me want to scratch my eyes out of my head (in the tradition of Oedipus) so that I cannot see the transgression. 

People tell me I'm a grammar Nazi.  This brings to mind Godwin's Law which provides me some amount of amusement.

I understand casual usage and vernacular banter.  I do speak Southern.  I speak some varieties of Hick.  I still learned proper language usage.  I do not claim perfection, but I claim top 2%.  I know my they're from there from their.  I love games like Kingdom of Loathing because one has to pass the Altar of Literacy in order to participate in the chat feature.  One encounters this....

As you approach the Altar of Literacy, you see the faint outline of a human figure standing in front of it.

"Hello," says the figure. "I'm the ghost of the English language."

"At this time, you are not allowed to enter the chat. This feature is reserved for those who are members of the Order of the Literate"

"If you wish to gain access to the chat, you must perform a series of tasks in order to prove that you can be trusted with the privileges and responsibilities of the Order."

 One finds this....

"Next, you must complete the following sentences..."

When they get [there|their|they're], [there|their|they're] going to put on [there|their|they're] mittens.

[Your|You're] nuts if you think I'm going to polish [your|you're] armor for free.

"Finally, you must answer this fiendishly difficult trivia question: What color was George Washington's favorite black horse?"

What is horribly sad is that there is a "cheat" page that exists to pass the Altar of Literacy. 

What I learned from the Master Degree Possessing English Teacher is that there is now a software program that does all of the APA formatting for anything one writes.  What I remember from my time in grad school is that I had to painfully construct all of my citations.  I thought that was part of the territory.  So now there is a 28 year old English teacher with a higher degree who says "Mine's are like that."

Mine's timbers can collapse leading to catastrophic structural failure. My legs are heavier now than they were when I was 14.  Precious metals are often found in mines. 

What do you think?

I live in the hood

I live in the attendance district for my school.  I am invested in the success or failure or the students in MY neighborhood.

My dog is racist.  I did not teach my dog to be racist.  The children who travel down my back alley who are mean and nasty to pets in the neighborhood taught my dog to be racist.  I am sure there are children that don't deserve the censure of my German Shepherd but there are children that have earned that same censure. 

My dog goes CRAZY when some folks are walking down the alley.  This is not a neighborhood where folks need to travel in the alley unless they are avoiding public view.  In my neighborhood, folks avoid public view when they are breaking into things/houses/cars/ etc.....

I love my big boy German Shepherd. He loves me too.  He hollers big time when his proximity alarm goes off.  He doesn't bark just to be obnoxious. He barks when he wants to warn people off.  He would eat someone who was ugly to me.

Thank you Prince.  You are the best puppy dog ever. 

Sweet Dreams

I am SO excited.  A lot of my "grown" angels are coming to town for Thanksgiving.  We are hooking up for lunch and I will get to see several that are three and four years out of college.  I am incredibly proud of all of them.  We have a book editor from New York.  We have a mother of three (including twins) from Florida. We have the owner of a Fed Ex route, We have a learning specialist who has expanded from her math teaching days.  They are wonderful humans and I am blessed to have had the privilege to teach them all.

I don't think it gets better than this.  Not in my world.

Where do We Go from Here?

At this point, I think that everyone is confused.  Teachers generally want to help students to succeed. WHY would we do this job if we didn't like kids? 

How can we REALLY help them?