Parent - Teacher Conferences...

(I'm writing this at school, the censor picks up any kind of cursing or talking of dirtiness, so one has to write carefully or see one's "ddr" score which always makes me think of the German Democratic Republic - it's annoying)

The sun is out, the air is crisp, later on it's supposed to rain until Sunday and weather advisories have already been sent out.

The world is going to dump rain once I get out of here. But I'm in here now and it's stupid. Parent/Teacher conferences can be annoying because often the teacher only sees the good students' parents. On the rare occasion one sees a problem student's parents, if one is not careful, it turns into a mutual bitching session in which the end result is: "the child could really do so much better! We have to make a plan!"

Meanwhile, most of the time, the trouble is the kid's getting high somewhere and could care absolutely less about whatever happens in here. Try telling that to a parent: "Yeah, basically, your kid's made a choice, he/she can go f--k and get high with other of the like-minded, or he/she can learn about the War of 1812. So basically, yeah, your kid just happens to be one of the kids who can't juggle these activities so well." And really, the choice should be more difficult than it sounds, because as posed, there's always later to learn about the War of 1812, but actually there isn't. It's the opposite way, it just doesn't feel that way to a kid who's been shuffled in and out of classes since the age of three, four or five.

A brilliant person I once knew used to beg, "can we just end this charade quietly? Please?" And it's how I feel today, what are we going to learn really? But there's a bustle in the school, a lot of the self-importants get to feel self-important and the scornful get to feel scornful and think about how later, it's going to rain, and it's going to keep coming down and the sidewalks of New York will be a mess of cold puddles climbing up wet jeans and people huddled and running from building to building and never being completely comfortable.

The weekend is here.