Have I mentioned how people here are irritable? Today Tim is extremely frustrated because his cell-phone service provider will not reimburse or compensate him for some extraneous or erroneous charges. What he expressed to be especially frustrating is the greatly insensitive nature of the customer service representative. The representative didn't seem to care about the problem, and having such sympathy could have alleviated a lot of the tension. Even if the problem wasn't resolved, at least some decency could have been shared. This makes me wonder the intelligence behind having customer service representatives who have very little interaction with their customers otherwise. At the same time, the customers have no idea of the representatives' condition, and the representatives have the difficult task of withholding all of their own private frustrations and not consider the customers' outrage as personal attacks. It would be much nicer if places of employment conducted de-stressing workshops for their employees. Perhaps Korea is on the right track after all, considering they periodically have workers take breaks to stretch during group-led sessions.
It seems to me that there is similar relationship in teaching, as that of customer service representatives and customers. The teachers interact with students on such an extended period of time, yet have very little insight into their background. There is barely any other interaction that is so extreme in its ratio. The bus driver doesn't need to have bus-management, yet teachers have to have classroom management. And what of supervisors? Do they have to have staff-management? Rather what I see happening to me here is staff-expulsion. If a bus passenger is unruly, they will be removed from the bus. If a student is unruly, the teacher is removed from having a job.
What is "The Rubber Room?" Simply put, "The Rubber Room" is a room where hundreds and hundreds of New York City schoolteachers presently sit, being paid full salary to do absolutely nothing. But, like so many things, it's not quite so simple... What Happens? Each year in New York City hundreds of schoolteachers are suspended. Their teaching privileges are temporarily, but indefinitely, revoked. Accused of a wide range and varying degrees of misconduct, these teachers are no longer allowed in the classroom. Instead, while awaiting a lengthy adjudication process, they are compelled to report to an off-campus location commonly referred to as The Rubber Room.
Read this newspaper article about it. Look at the trailer for a documentary film about the rubber-room. Look at the film's website. Listen to the radio broadcast on NPR's This American Life.
Read this newspaper article about it. Look at the trailer for a documentary film about the rubber-room. Look at the film's website. Listen to the radio broadcast on NPR's This American Life.
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