My Name Is Paul, And This Is Between Y'all.

I saw a couple of interesting little shows this morning at a local middle school. I was standing at the media center desk/weigh station for both shows, waiting for an early appointment. I’m an outsider. I would think everyone would be on their best behavior as representatives of the school, or at least show a little pride as a professional. I would be wrong. The first show started with a student being escorted to the media center by an adult – I don’t know what the adult does at the school – to dispute a charge about a lost or defaced I.D. The escorting adult was met with immediate scorn from the media center overlord and her minions. I don’t know the history between these two, but it seems catty was the order of the day. The dispute wasn’t whether or not there should be a charge, but how much the charge should be. The escorting adult handed the overlord two forms, and asked how figure A jumped to figure B. The overlord looked at the forms, ignored the escorting adult’s question, and scolded the student for not having taken the forms home and not having gotten them signed by her parents. This happened a few times over again before an amount was decided upon, and the student and escorting adult left in a huff. Then the media center cadre began to gossip about the escorting adult’s incorrect understanding of the current I.D. administration organizational chart, and beckoned me to join in. I gave a non-committal nod as I cringed listening to a group of “professionals” bad mouth a colleague in front of children and a visitor. The second show started when a teacher brought her class into the media center for a lesson on the computers. She smiled at me, assumed her class knew what to do, and lamented the bad behavior of yesterday’s class to the media center overlord; who, apparently, had to send some people out for being too loud. They were talking about this – as the class talked amongst themselves – in front of the previously mentioned outsider, me. How can anything get accomplished when the goal seems to be defining personal fiefdoms? Thankfully, my appointment showed up and rescued me. She was extremely professional; restoring a little bit of my faith that public education is still a good idea.