Posts Tagged ‘why’
I cribbed the title from a worthwhile essay in a similar vein, so credit there where due.
It’s Picture Day, and you’re a teacher. Chances are, things aren’t going well. All those photographers, and Picture Day is half of an hour behind schedule. As tempting as it may be, don’t get peeved at the camera guy. He’s just doing his job, as best he can.
If his car broke on the way to your school, or his equipment at it, remember that he doesn’t like either any more than you do. To fix his car means that he might not be able to pay the rent this month, and to fix his equipment means 45 minutes of patient explanation to students, staff, faculty and your school’s highest hierarchy. If he had any control over the situation, there wouldn’t be a situation to worry about.
Once he gets there, it’s an even shot that all the plans he knows have been changed. He may or may not find out that Picture Day has been moved to another, smaller room, or that your Picture Day coordinator has some wild ideas she’d like to try out that he can’t at all implement. While his boss and yours play early morning phone tag, he may or may not discover that he has to clear a class set of chairs and tables before he can even start setting up.
Camera Guy makes no real decisions, though he is the face of the company. Camera Guy is merely in charge of the camera, and that is where his authority ends. If your Picture Day is running slower than expected, it more-often-than-not isn’t going to be the fault of Camera Guy.
Just know that if you must complain to his superiors about his efficiency or the clogged lines at his camera, have the courtesy to first inquire with him politely. He’ll be very receptive. For Camera Guy, politeness can be such a novelty.
Proving the importance of a social science education, FoxNews ran a piece about the Lincoln-Douglass Debates. This is not a typo.
Here’s a video, via Ari.
… and though while the FoxNews interns’ lazy use of Google Image Search would lead first to mere and slight embarrassment, it was only the first in a long string of Election 2008 debacles that would lead to the collapse of the Murdoch-inspired news networks.
I propose a toast, that this future might meet us. At the expense of channeling the late, great Spiro Agnew — and I say that sarcastically — I really hate television news.
