Fidgety: Double Whammy

June 1, 2008

Double Whammy

It is June 1st. Tomorrow I will be starting my third month in the Rubber Room...and it is a Sunday night. Double Whammy. I never get to sleep on Sunday nights. Sunday nights mean Monday mornings in the Rubber Room. Monday mornings mean a whole week of waking up and heading to the Rubber Room.

I spend my idle time thinking about the Rubber Room. I've even begun packing up a RR "survival kit" the night before. My laptop and charger, my Vz wireless-only 59.99 a month for unlimited access to the outside world...my cell phone, my cell phone charger, extension cord, a couple of pens, reading glasses, the fliers that were left on my doorstep,gum, my unopened bills, blank checks, stamps, earplugs, earphones, a pillow, blanket, a few packets of sweet and low. That should cover it.
This is all becoming so robotic. I want to cry just thinking about it.
I will guess that by now my salary is being paid by Central. I am officially a prisoner of the DOE.
This is the way things happen here in the Rubber Room. Nothing makes any sense.

Please check this out. You will understand why I love this man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vMHSGmGtuo

3 comments:

JUSTICE not "just us" said...: Hummmm in my rubber room we get beaten everyday, for lunch we get a hot bowel of steam and the guards are rude.; June 2, 2008 at 6:27 PM
Chaz said...: Don't let it get you down. That is what the DOE wants. Just take it as a fully paid sabbatical.; June 5, 2008 at 7:49 PM
proofoflife said...: just discovered your blog. i think it is really important that you are documenting the torture you are being put through. I admire your courage. this too shall pass.; June 12, 2008 at 7:57 PM

Origin of The Rubber Room...(From Rubberroommovie.com)

Exact specifics as to when, why and how The Rubber Room came into being are next to impossible to come by, although wild speculation abounds. The likelihood is that, rather than being consciously created by any one person or group, The Rubber Room slowly but surely developed over a period of years through a process of trial and error, whereby teachers deemed unfit to remain in the classroom where "reassigned" to the nearest empty and available administrative space.
The term "The Rubber Room" appears nowhere in the formal legislative code governing New York City schools. When a New York City educator is sent to The Rubber Room, that educator is not openly or specifically told that he or she will be going to a place called "The Rubber Room". Moreover, if you telephoned an official in the New York City school system and asked for directions to "The Rubber Room", you may very well likely receive a response, possibly masked in faux confusion, telling you that there is no such place called "The Rubber Room". Nevertheless, "the room" undoubtedly exists and, because it has no official name, those three provocative and inflammatory words, "The Rubber Room", make up the default epithet by which it has come to be known, even by high-ranking school officials, many of whom find the phrase distasteful.
The exact meaning behind the words "The Rubber Room" is a topic of hot debate, particularly for occupants of The Rubber Room itself, some arguing that it is a reference to a padded room where mentally ill patients are placed, others proposing it is a room where once normal people are slowly and steadily driven crazy, still others believing it to be simply a generic allusion to a prison cell. There are even some -- more than one might initially suspect -- who claim to have been present during the exact moment when the phrase was coined, or even to have coined it themselves. Aside from etymological differences, however, almost everyone agrees that "The Rubber Room" is a pejorative term used to describe a room where New York City teachers are sent, usually involuntarily, to sit idle day after day while still collecting their salaries, often for months and sometimes for years at a time.
Over the years, many have made efforts to eradicate The Rubber Room entirely. For example, in March 2002, then Chancellor Harold Levy vowed to close The Rubber Room after becoming frustrated with a particular case, and in January 2004 Randi Weingarten, UFT President, called for an unconditional end to all of New York's Rubber Rooms. Despite best efforts, however, "the room" remains. http://www.rubberroommovie.com/

Do not believe...

Do not believe because you read it in a book,
Do not believe because you saw it on television,
Do not believe because science says so,
Do not believe because a famous person says so,
Do not believe because a wise person says so,
Do not believe because a wise person believes it,
Do not believe because your best friend believes it,
Do not believe because everyone else believes it,
Do not believe because others have believed it for a thousand years,
Do not believe because you've heard it many times before,
Do not believe because you are told you must,
Do not believe because others expect you to,
Do not believe because it gets you accepted
Do not believe because it will make your parents happy,
Do not believe because it will get you noticed,
Do not believe because you want to believe,
Do not believe because you can't afford not to,
Do not believe because it helps you cope,
Do not believe because you'd go mad if you didn't,
Do not believe because you must believe something
Do not believe because there's nothing else to believe,
Do not believe because it feels good to believe,
Do not believe because it makes sense,
Do not believe because your eyes tell you it is so,
Do not believe because it is your own experience,
Do not believe because it feels true,
Do not believe because you know it is true,
Do not believe any of this, Believe only that you are,
And do not even believe that,
For that is beyond belief.

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