23/9/17
Snapshots of the first 2 weeks of class
First day of class
Edigator: Hellow, I'm Ms. Edigator.
Students: Fuck you, suck my balls!
Second day of class
Ms. Edigator, your 13 year old student who has a 20 year old boyfriend ran away from home. Contact the police if you see her.
Second week of class
"You are not allowed to change any texts without written authorization from central office. You will teach the extremely shitty short story from Goosebumps in Spanish, where all the characters are written directly by the ass of R.L. Stein and translated by Mr. Google-Translate's Mentally Handicapped Twin."
Second week of class
Teacher: You know, these kids don't know any better. All of their parents are illegals, so the children know nothing but crime.
Edigator: Urm, you mean refugees or undocumented people?
Teacher: Uh? No, illegals.
Second week of class
Edigator: Class, we are going to work on respecting one another.
Student: Yeah, you can all suck my dick!
Second week of class
Student hits another in the hallway
Edigator: Hey, we are not behaving like that, we are nice to each other.
Student: Fuck you, I don't speak Spanish.
Second week of class
Teacher: What was your name?
Edigator: Edigator.
Teacher: Yeah, I'll never be able to pronunce it. I'll just call you Ms. E.
Edigator: No, I don't think so.
Teacher: ...
The edigator thought teaching Middle School was going to be more rewarding than working in Academia. It has a PhD from a Midwestern very White and Liberal-light institution. It emigrated from Mexico 9 years ago and due to luck and a gringo falling in love with its scalyness, it is also an American citizen.
Omaigod! You are so totally Frida Kahlo!
I am going to start chronicling my experience as a Mexican teacher in a public school in the midwest, where most of the teachers are white beckies and most of the students (about 71%) are brown (mostly Mexicans or from Mexican parents) or black. There is another Mexican teacher, there are NO black teachers. Black staff are rule enforcers, they patrol the hallways with earpieces and catch the students being naughty. Naughty means breaking any rule.
There are so many rules in the school I can't keep up. Hats are banned, bra straps are banned, showing bellies is banned, saggy pants are banned, cell phones are banned, no running in the hallways, slamming lockers, dragging chairs, cursing, screaming, eating, having chromebooks without bags, leaving class, being alone, standing up in certain places, in others it's ok. Talking in certain places. Every room seems to have this particular set of rules, every different hallway, every different set of stairs. (In addition to this country's already long set of rules set to keep people in their places). In this one room, students must keep hands on their desks and both feet on the floor at ALL times. ALL times. I don't even know how that is possible.
A little bit of context. This city has been ranked as #1 WORST city to be black. A couple of years ago a cop shot a kid to death who was jaywalking and then ran home, he burst into his house kicking the door and shot him about 6 times. It was decided it was in "self defense".
Unsupervised teenagers are not allowed in the malls, this is true for all colors of peoples but we all know who they are targeting. Also, hip hop music is banned from many establishments as well as people dressed with bandanas, saggy pants, white T-shirts, and anything that does not look like this:
My brown students are mostly under-performing. They don't want to read or write. The first week started out with them being very rude and insulting me. They stole my glasses and probably flushed them down the toilet. I have not been paid in about a year, so new glasses will have to wait. A becky teacher suggested to not worry about them, it's their culture. "Their parents don't care about them and that's the way they are treated at home, so it is what they know." Urm, no.
I have a couple of kids who are very very much at risk. Colleagues suggested to not waste any energy on them, "they are lost." To focus on the ones who will succeed. I guess I am new and will have to learn the hard way.
This third week, one of my Mexican students kicked a ball and hit a teacher during recess. This teacher told me the kid hit her twice and laughed about it. After investigating, the kids were playing soccer (which they do at every single minute of free time they have), if you are near them the ball might land next to you or on you. This is true for all nations. However, this teacher was giving her back to the game and another Mexican kid hit her the first time, then this other kid the second time. In neither of the two incidents it was a hard hit. The kids, however, made fun of the second kicker because he missed the pass, got the ball out of play, AND hit the teacher. The teacher thought they were laughing at her and she couldn't distinguish it had been two different kids.
Now, I do think the kids should be more aware of their surroundings and not hit teachers or other people, but I also think becky is showing her true colors. She is afraid of them, she thinks they are doing this intentionally, that they are meaner, eviler, and less kids than they are. She is very angry at them because she thinks they are targeting her. The kids were playing ball. She wants the kicker suspended.
Yesterday one teacher called me Frida because I was wearing a skirt and had my hair up. I guess all Mexican women look like Frida Kahlo? At least the stereotype wasn't Speedy Gonzales, so yay? Another one asked me if that was the way I really dress or... Yes, to all, this is how I dress. Yes, I wear braids, have black hair, use skirts, have hand embroidered blouses, have thick eyebrows, YES! YES! I AM MEXICAN! YES! We all look the same to you. I get it. Thank you for the reminder.
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Two days ago some beckies invited me out for drinks. I am exhausted, beckies. I am at school for 11 hours dealing with your micro and macro aggressions, I do not want to have a beer with you.
This is week 3.
The edigator has a PhD from a Midwestern very White and Liberal-light institution. She emigrated from Mexico 9 years ago and due to luck and a gringo falling in love with her scalyness, she is also an American citizen.
There are so many rules in the school I can't keep up. Hats are banned, bra straps are banned, showing bellies is banned, saggy pants are banned, cell phones are banned, no running in the hallways, slamming lockers, dragging chairs, cursing, screaming, eating, having chromebooks without bags, leaving class, being alone, standing up in certain places, in others it's ok. Talking in certain places. Every room seems to have this particular set of rules, every different hallway, every different set of stairs. (In addition to this country's already long set of rules set to keep people in their places). In this one room, students must keep hands on their desks and both feet on the floor at ALL times. ALL times. I don't even know how that is possible.
A little bit of context. This city has been ranked as #1 WORST city to be black. A couple of years ago a cop shot a kid to death who was jaywalking and then ran home, he burst into his house kicking the door and shot him about 6 times. It was decided it was in "self defense".
Unsupervised teenagers are not allowed in the malls, this is true for all colors of peoples but we all know who they are targeting. Also, hip hop music is banned from many establishments as well as people dressed with bandanas, saggy pants, white T-shirts, and anything that does not look like this:
My brown students are mostly under-performing. They don't want to read or write. The first week started out with them being very rude and insulting me. They stole my glasses and probably flushed them down the toilet. I have not been paid in about a year, so new glasses will have to wait. A becky teacher suggested to not worry about them, it's their culture. "Their parents don't care about them and that's the way they are treated at home, so it is what they know." Urm, no.
I have a couple of kids who are very very much at risk. Colleagues suggested to not waste any energy on them, "they are lost." To focus on the ones who will succeed. I guess I am new and will have to learn the hard way.
This third week, one of my Mexican students kicked a ball and hit a teacher during recess. This teacher told me the kid hit her twice and laughed about it. After investigating, the kids were playing soccer (which they do at every single minute of free time they have), if you are near them the ball might land next to you or on you. This is true for all nations. However, this teacher was giving her back to the game and another Mexican kid hit her the first time, then this other kid the second time. In neither of the two incidents it was a hard hit. The kids, however, made fun of the second kicker because he missed the pass, got the ball out of play, AND hit the teacher. The teacher thought they were laughing at her and she couldn't distinguish it had been two different kids.
Now, I do think the kids should be more aware of their surroundings and not hit teachers or other people, but I also think becky is showing her true colors. She is afraid of them, she thinks they are doing this intentionally, that they are meaner, eviler, and less kids than they are. She is very angry at them because she thinks they are targeting her. The kids were playing ball. She wants the kicker suspended.
Yesterday one teacher called me Frida because I was wearing a skirt and had my hair up. I guess all Mexican women look like Frida Kahlo? At least the stereotype wasn't Speedy Gonzales, so yay? Another one asked me if that was the way I really dress or... Yes, to all, this is how I dress. Yes, I wear braids, have black hair, use skirts, have hand embroidered blouses, have thick eyebrows, YES! YES! I AM MEXICAN! YES! We all look the same to you. I get it. Thank you for the reminder.
Two days ago some beckies invited me out for drinks. I am exhausted, beckies. I am at school for 11 hours dealing with your micro and macro aggressions, I do not want to have a beer with you.
This is week 3.
The edigator has a PhD from a Midwestern very White and Liberal-light institution. She emigrated from Mexico 9 years ago and due to luck and a gringo falling in love with her scalyness, she is also an American citizen.
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