Posts Tagged ‘figure’
I had half an hour to pick up a replacement social security card. There was no way I had enough time, so I went straight to office and confronted my boss.
There’s one right by the airport, nearby. I’ll go during lunch.
Thanks for offering.
I almost wish I hadn’t. As soon as the words slipped out of my mouth, I remembered that this particular office is notorious for long lines and slow service, even among social security administration offices. It’s practically at the level of an inner-city DMV. At the fastest, requesting a card is a 45-minute chore of a errand mostly made up of time spent reading your book and turning off your cellphone.
The last time I lost my card, I went to a dingy office in a San Jose strip mall, complete with 1973-quality interior decorating. It lasted a lot more than the 45 minutes the guard said it would, and I just knew I’d get the same uncomfortable chairs and wasted hour of my life this time around.
Imagine my disappointment that I was in and out just as soon as the social security card lady got back from her lunch. The blandly disinterested clerk from my last visit at the other office had been replaced at this office by an attentive clerk who, if I remember correctly, even smiled at me. More than once.
She didn’t disappear behind the counter for minutes at a time as she asked around her superiors about exactly how she was supposed to fill out the paperwork, and she wasn’t the 20-something answering my questions while busily texting her boyfriend. She started doing what she needed to do, and without blinking.
As I told her just before I turned to leave:
Whatever people usually say about the Social Security Administration, I had a very positive experience today. Please: Keep it up.
If only consistency weren’t completely out of the question.
In education’s corner of the Intertubes, there’s a lot of ranting and raving about parents not being involved in their students’ schooling. Parents aren’t involved. Parents aren’t supportive. Parents are non-responsive. Parents are angry at the suggestion that their little angel could be a disruptive beast who never turns in work.
I have yet to meet one of these parents. That I haven’t met them either proves or disproves that they exist, depending on how you look at it, I suppose. Yet although I’m sure that there’s some truth in saying that there some parents are too busy holding three jobs to care about what happens with their little truant, by-and-large the parents I’ve even tried to contact are extremely supportive.
Case in point: Just yesterday, I met with the parents of Ceasar Nothisrealname, one of my failing sophomores. Though I can say he legitimately bright enough that he should be in AP classes — that is, I don’t tell his parents that because they want to hear it — he’s loud, talkative and will interrupt lectures and discussion with bombastic non sequiturs.
Ceasar would have close to a C if he made up his test and quiz. He just hasn’t. He has rarely turned in other assignments on time.
Confused if not frustrated or angry, his parents called Ceasar’s counselor yesterday, arranging to meet me after class for a same-day appointment. My master teacher would have been there had he known about it, but he had called in for a sub — me — that day.
Any trepidation I felt about talking to parents and fielding their questions evaporated in the first 30 seconds. Over the course of the next 15 minutes, they, whether they knew it or not, revealed Ceasar’s motivations, favored learning style, attitude and outlook. That he wants to play sports. That he learns well by listening to lecture, rather than taking notes. That he has only ever failed one class, and because of a questionable teacher.
Good to know.
When I start finally start teaching and getting paid for it, I plan on making parent contact within the first two months. Reasonable parents are always an asset, and are always leverage.
Here’s to my hope that I haven’t just been lucking out.
