Fired

The day started off great, with a lesson that I think pushed my 10th graders' thinking quite a bit: problemitizing Jim in Huckleberry Finn, examining and evaluating whether he falls into minstrel stereotypes or not. See, a lot of people say that the novel is racist because it uses the n-word over 200 times, but that's just silly; it's the character who is saying it, and Twain has a point to prove with it. Where the argument gets far more interesting, I think, is when one examines the character of Jim to determine whether he falls into racist stereotypes. So we talked about minstrel shows, blackface, then read parts of the script for Spike Lee's Huckleberry Finn, a film I'd just about kill to see get made, and determined whether Wiley's script portrayed Jim as a Sambo-type character or as a fully-formed adult with common sense. I could see wheels turning. Mine sure were.

It's important to remember that now, because my day - and, really, it seems, much of my professional life - might now be divided into "Before 6th Period" and "After 6th Period." During 6th period, I received the worst news of my professional life, and was relieved from a position for the first time ever. It's not the teaching job. It's the coaching job. The shock was huge (it stemmed from something that happened last year), the outrage monumental (this is the part I shouldn't blog about, but suffice it to say it's about something that is complete and utter BS), the sadness profound (this will be my 6th year coaching, and my 4th with these kids - most of whom are seniors), and the fallout - because I intend to fight it with every means possible - could be bigger. It wasn't a move to get someone better, or to win games, or anything else. It was a move to get rid of me. And I'm not the type of person who usually makes waves.

Watch me now, though.