Final Decision: I'm Staying.

I'm learning to be a bitch with adults now, too. It feels wonderful.

Today after school I went with the hip hop team down to the auditorium so that they could practice their routine for the talent show this evening. We were trying to figure out where the lights were to turn them on so that we could practice when some janitor dude came in. I was still in the back end of the auditorium looking for the swith; most of my students had gone forward towards the stage to find the lights up there. I was hopeful of help and asked nicely, "Hey there! Do you know how to turn on the lights in here?" "Um, yea," he said in a debasing tone that said instead, "Obviously, freak." He continued, "But nobody signed up to be in here today, and they need to have a teacher with them." By this time, the team had reached the stage and stage lights were starting to be found and turned on. I ignored the tone, as well as being assumed a student, and informed him politely, "Oh, I am the teacher." "Then you need to be up there with them," he snippily demanded.

The only thing I hate worse than being dealt with in a tone is when people presume the worst out of my students. "Excuuuse you," with no remorse I retorted, "But they are just fine. Now, are you OK with the lights on, or are you going to make us practice in the dark?"

"Let me go ask the lady in charge of the auditorium."

"Thank-you."

...and he never came back.

There were so many responses I wanted to say. He had attacked me and questioned my leadership. I would have been up there with them if I hadn't been wasting my time on you; The only reason I am not up there with them is because I am standing here wasting my breath on you. But the truth is, the thing that mattered most of all was not that he had charged me, but that he accused my students of being poor, bad ghetto kids before they had even the time to do something wrong if they were bad kids. I have great kids. Better than you, even. You leave them alone.

This is why I choose to stay with these kids: to help them prove wrong a world that has given them no chance.

What a rotten man.