No teacher

We received a note home that Lila's teacher quit yesterday. It didn't give any information. It just said that she is no longer with the school and that they wish her luck in the future. Tr. Gia (the teacher who gave me the exterminator recommendation) will be taking over until they can hire a new kindergarten teacher.

I suspect that I know what the problem was. I went into the classroom one day and saw that the kids were out of control. They were running in and out of the classroom, using the language of gangsters and sailors and in the short time that I was there I even witnessed a fist fight.

When we first met Lila's teacher she looked like a perky, starry-eyed, fresh- faced idealist. But by the end of last week (only two weeks in) she looked entirely downtrodden, frazzed and stressed out. Someone I know saw her crouched over and screaming at the children because they weren't standing in their line properly. It's probably good that she quit. I'm sure that's not the kind of teacher that she wanted to be. There are some children who will eat people like her for lunch. Also, poor urban kids often offer different challenges than suburbanites. Suburban kids definitely have challenges too though. It's just different.

On a separate note, my day today is going remarkably smoothy for only being 7AM. I was wide awake and ready to start the day at 5:50. By the time that my alarm went off at 6:30 I'd already had a cup of coffee, was caught up on email and had breakfast on the stove for the girls. BOTH of my children heard the alarm at 6:30 and came downstairs on their own (something that has NEVER happened before). They both sat down to breakfast burritos and they both actually ate them. So, at 7 AM, when I am usually struggling to get Bunny to climb/crawl out of her bed... both of my kids are fed, dressed and sitting on a comforter on the floor watching old Flinstones episodes.