Apathy Jack writes:

Off hiatus for a brief check in.

In the week since I started the New School, there’s been one serious incidence of violence, and the school master key has been stolen, which has resulted in many thousands of dollars worth of re-keying.

I’m almost getting bored.

Back at Hoodrat, my contacts inform me, the students have started a grassroots protest movement about the incident with the Maths teacher just before I left - every morning, dozens of crude posters appear around the school and surrounding community reading “Hoodrat students witness Maths teacher assaulting a student – told not to talk about it!” (Made the paper today, if anyone was watching...); there have been four major fights; two laptops have been stolen from classrooms; a teacher had his door kicked in and his wallet stolen from his desk; the fire alarm has been set off twice (neither times were for the actual fire that was lit later); and a student took a crap in one of the English classes. (To be fair, that teacher is so appalling bad, I remain convinced that the kid was just showing good use of metaphor...)

New school is weird; every day they bang on about the litter problem. I’ve been trying to explain to them: I’ve never seen a school as clean as it - It looks like the propaganda pictures we photoshopped for Hoodrat’s prospectus a year or two back. Whenever I meet a new staff member, they shake my hand and tell me how much they’re looking forward to working with me. I have to stop myself from yelling “What’s your angle, dammit?” at them every time they do it.

As for my cold realisation that I’d have to give up swearing in front of students; it took me around fifteen minutes into my first class to forget that. But the students told me they didn’t mind, so it wasn’t all bad. I think I’ll be able to adjust...