Making peace with a world of irrational demands...

I've got a certification issue that I've been working on, today...I've done everything that I can do, today, to get it resolved...

It's been hanging over my head for awhile...I thought I was further along on certification issues when I left grad school than I was...and I've been taking care of them since I got the job...

You know what the craziest thing about these issues and most of the bureaucratic hassle that I've dealt with in the school system is?...

It has almost nothing at all to do with taking care of the concerns and problems in schools and among kids that we say we want taking care of...at best, it guarantees that people who get my job have an education background, which is a mixed bag, really...

And at worst...it becomes the pain in the ass that it's become for me...

And I can't think of a better case scenario than mine to demonstrate just how irrational the whole process is...just how foolish it is to get so wrapped up in regulations that often have little to do, substantively, to achieve the goals we say that we want -- namely, getting qualified teachers in classrooms...

And do very much to undermine those goals...

I've said that if I end up not being renewed next year, I may just quit teaching altogether...

Which would be the most clearly counterproductive result of the whole process...but I just figure that if district officials get to that point, they might as well rest with that issue on their consciences...which I doubt would let them rest well...there's very few criteria -- except for the need for more experience -- by which you could judge me a poor teacher, I don't think, objectively, intuitively, intellectually or otherwise...

You just have to be kind of stubborn fool, I think, to not recognize what a stupid, foolish decision that would be...and one that would so disillusion me, I don't think I would be interested in teaching for quite a while (I don't know if I'd ever go back) if it were to happen...

Sometimes I wonder if we just want important efforts to fail, we so often bullshit the consequences of foolish policies and decisions...

I actually think the matter will resolve itself fine...

In the meantime...I'm left wondering just how stubbornly wrong-headed we will be in our pursuit of a world where rules dictate to a reality that is perpetually on its own terms...

We have to stop this nonsense at some point...because we won't be able to function at all, otherwise...

But in the meantime...

We live in a world where everyone is perpetually just trying to get what they want...and the rules are perpetually a function of that...

Or more perversely...we keep maintaining a world where bureacracy obstructs our ability to achieve important goals...

And we all abdicate responsibility to abstract rules that serve no purpose...except to give us the clearly false sense of accomplishing something that it is not accomplishing...

We're just kind of a foolish lot, I think...people...

We just get committed to all kinds of positions...good and bad...and then staying stuck, no matter how foolish the consequences are...

The saving grace being that you can only be a moron for so long before people start to point it out...

And stupidity begins to give way to reason...

To do otherwise is to try to maintain an irrational worldview in the face of all kinds of evidence to the contrary...

Being wrong is the everyday term for that situation...but soon it becomes damned foolish...and clearly controlling...and at the far end of the spectrum it becomes psychotic and destructive...

Surely I can have more faith in people than that, don't you think?...

I hope so...because I have a feeling that you would have one pretty upset faculty and administration and staff, and perhaps some students, as well, here, if the case turns out to be otherwise...

I have stuff to get done, here...

Have a good week, everyone...

Love,
Ben