"Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Lose, and Sometimes It Rains"

The LOML says this a lot.  (I think it's from Bull Durham.)  Well.  Today it didn't rain, and I didn't lose.

I went to the local community college to begin my tutoring assignment, which is about as far from the fine-arts school experience as can be imagined, but still riveting.  Possibly even more so:  I am assigned to a federal literacy program under the auspices of which I am to accompany and assist thirteen adults on their journey to learning how to read, think, and write.  Most of them are currently at about the 7th grade level, some lower.

I inched my way into the back of the room as unobtrusively as possible, and took a seat.  I watched the teacher--a woman about my age--work the room; I noted the atmosphere she generated--of specific yet nonjudgmental expectation for achievement.  They read aloud; some of them stumbled and made mistakes; she didn't correct them but still managed to encourage them.  The curriculum was focused on Black History Month; one of the students got up and did a presentation on Bob Marley.  The teacher let the CD continue to play in the background as she went on with the lesson.  I was agog; gobsmacked; could feel myself lighting up like Times Square, thinking "So this is how you do it [the diversity mandate]!  I am completely OK with this!"

After class, she and I flapjawed for about an hour; she's had the identical experience to mine, i.e., being told by Dubya, even though she has two master's degrees, that she must go back to school to get a "credential" in order to learn how to leave no child behind.  She responded to that ultimatum exactly as I did:  "You're kidding, right?  No?  Well, no fucking WAY am I taking enough BS courses to get a PhD in BS on top of all the real work I've already done, just to gratify you!" then spent a few years having four jobs like I do at the moment--and now look where she is!  "Oh, Doc," she pleaded, "you have to apply for the fulltime position we have open.  Oh, please, you have to!  And meanwhile, you have to apply for whatever adjunct positions we might have lying around, I don't know, somebody always collapses at this point in the semester, let's go talk to Fred! [not his real name]."

She hauls me over to Fred so fast, I don't have time to tell her I already know him.  She introduces us; he rises out of his chair to his full height of 4'11", shakes my hand, and asks, "Why do I feel I already know you?"

"Because I got a D in your French class in 1967.   And more recently, you hired me as adjunct before I got the fulltime position at the high school."

None of this rings much of a bell.  But he peers (wayyy) up into my face and says, "Ze eyes . . . I dunt fergit ze eyes!"

Which is exactly the same thing he said to me two years ago.  But never mind.

He has no adjunct positions available at the moment, but when I hand him my card with all my stuff on it, he suddenly blurts, "OH!  You know, in April I am ztarting zomzing I will call 'Weekend College.'  Friday nights and all days Saturday.  But no writing classes.  No.  I have issues with zix-week writing classes."

I am downcast.  I am used to being a writing teacher though I am capable of oh so much more.

"I am thinking literature, you know, zix weeks of -- zomzing or other?  You could do zis?"

"Oh yes, you bet!"  I am so excited, I'm practically barking.  "Anything!  Chaucer to present day, anything, I can do it."

"Zo fill out an application!  Nize to zee you agayn!" and waves me off.

Friday nights and Saturdays?  Right after the Friday fine-arts gig is over?  How could this be any better?  I am levitating.

Comments

[Da Goddess]

Levitating?

[fred1st]

Yeah, levitating. I'm hovering right there off the ground with you. Go for it, Doc! Haven't things changed (here and there) over the past year? Who knows what comes next...

[Pica]

Yes, that one is from Bull Durham, a pearl of a cliché taught by Crash Davis to Nuke LaLoosh, who repeats it to a reporter once he's moved up to the majors.

(We're going to try to go see the Bulls play the PawSox in Durham in late May!)

Good going, Doc, I'm so pleased about all this. (Your mother was ABSOLUTELY right about the business cards, you can tell her so from me.)

[Catch-22]

Oh yes, the eyes. And so much talent. I could go on and on. What a treasure you are. We win, always.

[coach sale]

You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.

[Discount North Face]

Don't know what is wrong what is rite but i know that every one has there own point of view and same goes to this one