One A Day, Day 22: Haven’t Thought This Through

See title. It’s 11:26pm and I haven’t thought of something to write about. I did write a lengthy post extolling the virtues of Star Trek Online over at BitMob earlier, so at least I have written something. Still, not thinking things through sometimes leads to some entertaining ramblings of the nonsensical variety. Or sometimes not.

Let’s start by talking about today. That’s always a good opening.

Well, today was another day at work. Same old moans. Stupid children behaving in an annoying manner. Not wanting to be there. And, because it’s Monday, that means Meeting Day! Hooray!

Today’s meeting was about special needs provision. Specifically, and hold tight here, it was about IEPs, IBMPs, SA children, SA+ children and all manner of other nonsense that would cause your brain to melt if I explained it. The one thing that struck me, though, as I was sitting bored stiff in this meeting was this: why is one person expected to do all this shit?

I mean seriously. Think about it for a minute. A teacher is in charge of thirty kids. Their primary role is to teach them. That should be their role. But instead, they also find themselves keeping extensive and boring records of every single little mark, every single little bit of behaviour, every single time the kid looks at them funny – all to use for “evidence”. Exactly what it is to be used as “evidence” for is never made explicit. Perhaps there’s a global conspiracy involving children, and the UK’s teachers are actually secret agents attempting to get to the bottom of it. But somehow I doubt it.

To get back on the point – yes, a teacher is in charge of thirty kids. But compare this to someone who’s in charge of a team of people at work – it tends not to be just one person who is in charge of everything. Say what you like about overmanagement, at least delegating responsibility between several people means that there isn’t one person constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown because they discover they forgot to fill out a form PQX-65-A which was due in yesterday.

It’s bollocks, is what it is. I’m glad I’m leaving.

What else? Hmm. I took a bunch of photos from my little trip to the forest the other day and finally stuck them on my computer. I’m currently booted into Windows, though, and they’re stored on the Mac side. I’ll upload them tomorrow if I remember. There are lots of pictures of wild ponies, which look like a cross between a pony and a yak.

Anything else? Err… I downloaded an iPhone app that purports to analyse your sleep patterns and wake you up when you’re in “light sleep”. I tried it out this morning and I certainly did wake up gently, though actually getting out of bed was somewhat difficult. I don’t think that was anything to do with how I woke up though – more to do with the fact that I knew as soon as I got out of bed, I would be on the way to another horrible day at work. Boo.

Still, tomorrow is my quiet day at work. Oh! That reminds me. More observations coming up. YAY. Not until the start of March (i.e. just before I finish, making them utterly useless to me) but they’re there, waiting on the peripheries of my awareness like a fetid old tramp. That and parent’s evening coming up soon, which I really can’t be bothered with. “Your child acts like a dick on a daily basis. Next!”

I think that’ll do for now. I’ll try and write something more interesting tomorrow. For now, I bid you good night.