Infinitesimally Beyond Mediocracy 37
Teaching Career
Teaching Career or part of it anyway.
My time spent teaching started with Pflugerville ISD as a substitute teacher. The first time you put your name on the board for your first class is a moment. I wrote out, “Mr. Pinson,” this only could have been my father, but no one called him that. One of the first assignments was as an Elementary Art Teacher. All the kiddos almost in unison, “Yaay, a boy teacher!” Given I was an Elementary Art Teacher’s Sub. But it also made me sure that I didn’t want to teach at the Elementary level again. Kids at that age are fragile and you cannot raise your voice… At all.
Let’s just say, it’s not like the movie Kindergarten Cop. Raise your voice and they all start crying. I put the male student, as he seemed to take my tone the worst, in the teacher’s chair, at her desk, to calm him down. It was close to Valentine’s Day, so the assignment was to make cards. All the girls made cards dedicated to me and it was adorable. Boy student that got emotional made a graffiti art that just said “Mr. Pinson” as appearing on the board. It was also adorable; I had them all laminated and still have them to this day.
After that time, it was summer break and I didn’t teach again for several years, not until 2013 at Bastrop ISD at Cedar Creek High School and it was an ordeal. East Austin was in the process of Gentrification and the “rough neighborhoods” from Austin were emptying of minorities and they were moving East to Cedar Creek. Mostly Hispanic and many with chips on their shoulders for some reason. I’ve been to ghettos. Chicago has some rough areas near Cicero, I didn’t feel threatened there, but I didn’t stay long. Houston has the Wards, the Black ghettos that were the results of segregation. Have been to those areas but also non-threatening. Austin never really had that level of ghetto, not really. You can tell you’re in a rough neighborhood when the convenience stores have roll down metal barriers, the kind used in hurricane zones on the coast. Austin has none of that.
But the kids at Cedar Creek were another story. Loud and flighty would best describe the lot, always looking for trouble, always ready for a fight. I blame management on this one. The principle was new to being in charge and the students knew it. Some principles want to be liked by the students, and this is a problem. This campus was out of control, and I had a front row seat… Wait no, front row classroom, which was in the main hallway that led from the cafeteria and gym to all the classrooms. It was a busy area, and anything that could happen in the morning did, including fights.
One morning in November it was a complete war zone. My door was open and most of my kids were in the room as first period just started. Yelling in the hall I heard, “Get your hands off my girlfriend!” Then, Bang! The noise was against my door, heard over the yelling. Sheriff’s deputy had slammed a kid against my door, harshly, attempting to put the kid in cuffs. Similar to what I’ve seen so many times on TV, but this was the real world, this was not an episode of COPS. The boy spun out of the deputy’s hold and was squaring off against him. He was a big kid. Another deputy extended his baton behind Noe. This got his attention. Noe turned and squared off against the new threat. Former foe, the first deputy, pulled a taser from his belt and hit Noe in the back dropping him to the ground.
My students came in the next day reporting, “Mr. Pinson, the Sherrif didn’t fight fair.”
“They (law enforcement) will never fight fair,” was my response. “They have violent weapons on their person and can’t afford the option of those weapons falling into the hands of children. They do not fight fair; they end the fight quickly and often painfully.” Pain is what people remember. It’s one of those universal things that everyone knows, it sticks with you. We watched the TV show Cops for a few days. The kids would laugh at the stupidity of the criminals, but they got it. Hopefully they gained some respect for the thankless job Law Enforcement must do. I know they saw the stupidity of the criminals.
Cedar Creek was completely out of control. The principal was wanting to let the children, yes, they are still children, exercise their First Amendment Rights. Not a bad thing necessarily, but when children are out of control. When children are physically fighting Law Enforcement, we should be doing that discipline thing. The children were not reigned in at all. Hallway in front of my class was in complete chaos with the protesting. A small group of girls came into my room, about eight of them. “We’re not protesting but this is scary.”
I replied, “Come in and sit down. I’ll give you permission slips to get back into class.”
One of the girls responded, “We don’t even like Noe, he’s a bully!” Enough said on that topic. I had to write a report of what I had seen, and it was given to the Sherrif. I’m slightly in the video as it was my open-door Noe was slammed against. Glimpse of me in the doorway holing my students back in the classroom as they would have gladly joined in the mele that the morning had become. I had PTSD at that point and could not go back into that school.
After Winter Break I transferred to Bastrop High School, it was wonderful. Other teachers would communicate with me, treated me as an equal. Cedar Creek had low cut cubicles where I would spend my conference period and eat my lunch, in complete silence. None of the other teachers would acknowledge me in any way. It was off-putting to say the least. Combine that with the behavior of the student body and you can understand the PTSD.
Don’t get me wrong, the students at Bastrop had behavior issues at times, but the principal was a badass. Hewitt wore boots and had a presence; he was not friendly to the kids. He was not looking to be their friend; he was also a parent. Reminded me of my own high school principal at Del Valle, he wasn’t human. He could have been a Terminator. We feared and respected him. My last day of high school we were waiting to get out and for some reason we were in front of the Principal’s Office, he was just hanging out joking around with us. Who was this person? Where did this personality come from? That is what you need in a principal, not the fun guy but the Terminator.
I spent about five years at Bastrop High School. Spent time as a sub at first then moved to Physics as that teacher was way too friendly with the female students, especially the pretty ones. He was in breach of his contract, not enough to be fired, but enough to be banned from any contact with students. More disgusting behavior. It’s why I have zero tolerance for inappropriate behavior directed towards children.
I also worked with the sped students, so I got signed up for the SAMA training. I was trained by the military to respond tactically and violently to threats. The SAMA training was welcomed in my life. We were trained to respond non-violently to student behavioral problems. To be honest it was mostly, bear hugs and trying to take kids gently to the ground.
For some reason our incoming Freshmen came into High School with the belief that teachers could not lay a finger on them for any reason. My speech to the Freshmen is always this: “We can physically intervene in three instances: 1) You are damaging or about to damage property. 2) You are going to injure someone else. 3) You are going to injure yourself.”
James was an awesome student. James was bigger than me. James was on the spectrum. He went through a phase where he had to punch inanimate objects. Be it a tree, the side of the school building, or a window. I had to come up behind him, put him in a bear hug, pinning his arms and repeat, “James, don’t do that. James, you’re going to hurt yourself. James, calm down please” Repeating three times, not sure why three but that was the training. All the areas where he would tend to do this were under video surveillance. The training and certification were critical, and I could not have worked with James without them.
One of the other students in the SAMA class was the Principal at Emile Elementary School. The playground was not fenced at the time and a male student started booking it towards the highway. Principal Brown tackled the child, this I found out was the reason this SAMA training class was scheduled. There was a class earlier in the year, but this one was remedial for him and the rest of us were allowed to attend.
I actually had kids come to me and ask me to open carry my gun after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. I was still teaching at Bastrop High School at that time. They know I am ex-military, “We trust you,” one advised. High praise but disturbing at the same time. That kids must go to school and a shooting is in their minds at all is unnatural. As teachers we train for it, we lock our doors because of it. Again unnatural. But it’s just where we are as a society and it’s only a matter of time before another fool acts out.
Wednesday, January1, 2025, at 0315 hours - Shamsud-Din Jabbar: fool.
Wednesday, January 1, 2025, at 0840 hours - Matthew Alan Livelsberger: fool.