Fidgety: Back to Purgatory

August 27, 2009

Back to Purgatory

School begins September 8 and as many of you will agree, it is not a day most teachers in the "BloomKlein Era" are looking forward to with anticipation. As a reassigned teacher, beginning the school year in the rubber room for the second time following a stress-free summer is like having to return to death row. The same appending "3020" hangs over my head, just as though I never left.
As I have stated before, there is no purpose or gain achieved in this senseless practice that the DOE continues to support. Having to sit in a bare room day after day with no assignment or duties is a shameful waste of talent and education. There is none of the usual shopping for supplies, 'setting up' of the classroom, hanging borders, arranging seats, writing schedules or lesson plans. Teachers assigned to the rubber room simply just need to report there. Clearly there is no positive opportunity for growth, remediation, development or educational gain for ANYONE. There is nothing to look foward to; and no reason for to believe that anything will be any different if you are returned to your school. Void of sense or logic, the rubber room just "is".
Where is the sanity in sending teachers to a room for an indefinite amount of time while paying them their full salary and benefits just to sit and stare at the wall? However serious or trivial the accusation against a teacher is, how is it beneficial to toy with teacher's lives, careers and mental health? The endless waiting game is an inhumane method of discipling teachers accused of 'alledged' wrongdoing. The rubber room is a lose-lose situation for the tax payers, the teachers and the students.
Stay tuned for more of my ranting and raving...

4 comments:

Pete Zucker said...: Hang in there! You and I need to talk one day and I can explain to you what I did to get out of RR. The squeaky wheel gets oiled.; August 27, 2009 at 8:37 PM
Chaz said...: Fidgity:

This is not completely true. Your stay in the "rubber room" has opened your eyes to the DOE system.

You became a blogger and your knowledge has increased greatly about justice in the DOE system. Further, you also are aware how useless and uncaring our union reps are, except for Betsy Combier.

Knowledge is power and you are getting more powerful every day.; August 28, 2009 at 7:14 AM
JUSTICE not "just us" said...: Study, read, workout, plan, help to organize etc.etc.etc.

You are a "political prisoner". Learn what all political prisoner have learned throughout history: Resistance is not futile!; August 29, 2009 at 6:47 AM
Warren B. said...: Hold on. Does "rubber room" refer to teachers under investigation (as it appears to explicitly refer to in the New Yorker story) or to the ATR pool as a whole? I don't want metaphors to get mixed here.; August 31, 2009 at 8:58 AM

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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