A Thirty Foot Long Blue Penis

I will put about a week's worth into this entry. I've been busy and have had lots of experiences.

I'll start with Monday. I got to school and walked in and surveyed the graffiti sprayed on the building over the weekend and was astonished to see a thirty foot long blue penis spray painted on the side of the Automotive building. (Monty said it was longer)

To be honest, I came in from another direction. I was standing in the walkway early on when another teacher came in and exclaimed about the graffiti. It's pretty normal around here, but someone else said something so I walked down to see it and by golly there was a hairy scrotum and a thirty (at least) foot long penis spray painted on the wall. (Another friend commented that it was circumcised)

Hmmm. That's special I am thinking. Is this an effort from an underconfident tagger to overcompensate? I've seen lots of graffiti at the school but this was worthy of remark. I called the main office and Ms. Moreno answers the phone. I ask her if she knows about the graffiti on the T Building and she asks what it is. I tell her there is a 30 foot long blue penis on the wall and she says "WHAT did you SAY?" I repeat myself. Then she asks "Is this ****?" I acknowledge that it is and she says "Really?" and I tell her that there is certainly such an item on the wall. She laughs her ass off and says it's the first she's heard of it. I ask her to bring it to the attention of the powers that be and she say she will.

I'm not confident that the office personnel are taking action. My students are disturbed by such an image on the wall. I ask the security guy if he's seen it and he walks down to look and comes back and says "That's disturbing. My daughter goes to this school and I don't want her to see that." He gets on the radio. He's not as frank as I am and reports "disturbing" artwork on the wall.

There is other graffiti near by. "Texas Bomb Crew" has left a missive.

I talk to my young friend Mr. D. and he tells me that "bombing" doesn't mean explosives with regard to graffiti. It has to do with marking territory and overwriting others' territories. Sounds like a pissing contest to me.

It's a good day. It's a jewelry day. I love A days because I teach the same thing all day in the same room. My kids are doing beautiful work this year. I've put a lot of images up at http://www.artmetal.com/og/artmetal_nextgen

I'm so proud of them. They are pushing harder than I've had kids push for a number of years.

I love my new principal. He's a righteous dude. I don't know him well yet, but I can tell that he cares, I can tell that he's kind, I can tell that he wants to make things better than they are. I think he is one that is willing to raise hell to make things better. God love him.

I love the fact that when he gets on the announcements every morning that he says it is a wonderful day at Skyline. I love the fact that he has a positive focus. I love the fact that he seems to know Baba Ram Dass and wants us to "Be Here Now." I love it that when he closes the announcements that he says "This is Mr. Wright signing off. Peace Out" I LOVE IT.

Every day, I make the peace sign at my kids along with "Peace Out"

I feel for him. He's walked into a nest of snakes. We've got 1800 freshmen and some of them are the foulest children on the planet. They can't help it, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. He is trying to lead by example and show them that there is a better way. He's walked into a wonderful school that has suffered urban decay. Skyline was the first magnet school in the US. The premise is amazing, but has not been supported. I admire him for shaking trees to try and make things better. He should be our superintendent. If he took his positive attitude to the entire district, things could be wonderful.

This week we had "tardy lockout." I saw my building Vice Principal being the strong spunky woman that she is. She is amazing. Our building rocks the house. We processed almost two hundred kids in about fifteen minutes. We all got out there to process the wrongdoers and we conquered and overcame their disobedience. Why are the students reluctant to follow basic rules? Why do they revile us for following them? I love and revere my building administrator. She is amazing. She does her job and she does it with enthusiasm. I admire her and appreciate her.

Wednesday morning, I wrote two discipline referrals before school even started. We are charged with shooing children toward class. I went out of my room to see six young ladies sitting right outside my room. I asked them to disburse and go to class. I went out to the porch and shooed off the loiterers. Most of the kids walked away but one angel turned to me and said "I don't have to do what you say." I told him "Wrong Answer" and as I'd written him a referral before I recognized him and wrote him another referral. I went back into the building and the same girls were still in the hallway. I asked them to go to class and one of them said "I'M DOING SOMETHING" What she was doing was buying candy from a classmate. I told her "Wrong Answer" I said that if she needed to buy candy from a classmate she should say "Miss, I'm buying candy for a fundraiser and I'll move on in a minute." I went back out to the porch and swept people along and went back into the building and and the same three girls were still in there. I walked up and said "Ladies, why are you being so silly? I've asked you to go to class." Miss Angel said "You are getting on my fucking nerves." I said "You lose" and I wrote a referral on her.

Why would a 9th grade child say that to a teacher?

When I was coming up, I would never curse a teacher.

Yesterday, I read an article in the paper http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15766499

about a rapper in Dallas who wants to tell our children to pull their pants up. I've written previously on being tired of seeing butt.

Continued