CLICK THIS LINK http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp-XqMybw6Q for a quick video that really drives home the "We don't need no education" mentality of kids (and I mean really LITTLE kids!) nowdays.  Kinda makes you want to laugh AND cry while your stomach is twisting up in knots.  A must see!!   Teachers -- take notes!!

ANYHOW...

What we're dealing with is a campus that is struggling to actually get by or at least appear to be doing so. Shift by shift, day by day.  EVERY shift, EVERY day.  How long can this House Of Cards stand -- especially if the Winds Of Change come blowing in right brisk-like?  Think about it.   I say there's still hope, but we need to upgrade some, weather the storms ahead, and pick up the pieces and try again... and hope for the best results for the greatest amount of people who are really trying to get us back on track and/or get rehabilitated at whatever age they may be.

The operational mode at TYC GIDDINGS requires massive quantities of illusion, smoke and mirrors, sleight of hand, etc, and we pretty much have to go along with it or be labeled as a bad person/employee somehow.  We offer (and get) false hope, false security, false EVERTHING, pretty much, and WE ALL KNOW IT, eh?  The KIDS know it.  They know they're getting away with what they want to do, and openly mock us by saying things like "Ohhhh, noooo, not LOW SCORES!!  Pleeeeeese don't mark me down!!" and such.  Heard that yourself?  There's no better way for them to sap their JCO's energy/patience/care/dedication than to make us suffer a death of a thousand cuts... none of which individually will kill, but CAN accumulate in lethal effects... though some resign before that final end.

So... Johnny doesn't put his shoes right under the bed.  Doesn't even MAKE his bed --  he halfassedly folds the bedspread AND blanket at the foot of it.  So I say "Johnny, you need to make your bed please"... and after the third request  Johnny says "I don't know how to make it."  Ahhhh... guess after being here for the last couple years he simply FORGOT.  What's a JCO to do?  Complain about his doo rag last night, the pants cuffed so tightly it's cutting off  blood circulation to his feet?  That he's sagging, racially/sexually disrespectul, cursing, and sitting in the staff chair and and and ---AND ALSO keep track of what all the OTHER 16 Johnny's are doing -- which is pretty much the same thing -- all at ONCE??!

Sorry, I only have two eyes and one brain.  Maybe they oughta hire octopi, or squid?  Hmmm.  I know what I need to do, but can only do so much, at one time, with one kid.  More on that another day...


FYI

I do a lot better job on my NEXT shift if I get off the CURRENT shift on time -- and am NOT told at six minutes after the hour that the relief staff (who lives in town) had a alarm malfunction... and is an hour late... same lame "reason", for the second day in a row.   And when the radio is passed over, I hear not a word of apology.  Ahhh, well.  What goes around comes around, as they say.   Hear the story going around about the recent 38 call-in's on one day in another State School... and what happened when The Higher Up went to see what The Problem was there?  Whoo hoo!!

Now... when my "schedule" (as it were) for next week shows about a third as many visiting staff coming in (to keep us in ratio) as we have slots that need filling, I can only asume they may be expecting to work MY BUTT even MORE.  Due to current staffing shortages already, the old two + overtime shifts a week routine isn't making me a better employee, no, not when I get to feeling like a meat puppet that's being thrown around and chewed on.  GRRR.

AND IN OTHER NEWS:  I'm hearing of maybe "Big Changes" coming about the first of next month.  Uh-huh.  Whatever came of the expected followup inspectors/investigators since Smith, huh,  and what did he tell who?  And why haven't we been told anything?  What CAN Admin change that's WORTH changing if they don't solicit our unguarded FEEDBACK as to what we are having to deal with??  A real poser, I know, but it does seem to me we need to have some sharing of information, resources, and opinions rather that the culture of secrecy that now prevails.  Shuffling around the kids and staff isn't a solution.  The Campus Wide Meeting supposedly coming up next week MIGHT... possibly COULD be the opening we've all been looking for if we're given the option to speak frankly to those in authority who can make (substantial) changes in the Way We Do Business.  If they listen -- GREAT!  If EVERYTHING is open to be cussed and discussed -- we'll be on our way to institutional health and effectiveness... I'm sure of it.  In the "Be Afraid, Be VERY Afraid" department, we have this -- A kid who was sentenced for some kind of weapons charge
was getting out today, after serving less than a year.  The kid -- to be frank -- was a TOTAL TURD the whole time he was on the dorm; never did anything other than what HE wanted.  Anyhow, I asked him what he wanted to do, did he have any plans for the future?  His answer was "Well, I could probably rob a bank."  My advice: Pay all your bills online -- and duck if you hear explosions.  It was soooooo heartening to know WE were sending this violent thug, this uneducated and lazy boy-man back out into OUR SOCIETY where we can EXPECT him to do exactly as he said.

Sigh. Am scheduled a 12 hour shift  on the campus wide meeting day, so might miss ithe big pow-wow.  If I do, give 'em hell, y'all.  Either we all hang together or we all hang seperately.