I've written before about culture shock within my home state. Now that I'm in my fourth year of teaching in the inner city setting, I've grown used to the things that used to shock me. Every now and then though something will happen that will remind me that I'm not from around here.
There is always an element of risk when teaching a class that involves children handling instruments. Much of the time the risk is not really mine because the students will rent instruments from an outside source or will, against my strong urging, buy the instruments themselves. When it comes to the big instruments, cellos and basses in my case, the school rents to the student because the cost of renting from somewhere else is too high for most families. Over the years we've purchased many cellos and basses of various sizes as well a handful of violins and violas then charge a small fee for families to rent an instrument. The instruments are nothing special; they're good enough for students to play but not too nice because, let's face it, middle school kids don't always handle much of anything with special care.
Last year I had a transfer student from within the district who had rented a bass from the other middle school. She stopped showing up to class and didn't attend the concert at the end of the year and I thought, well, we're never going to see that bass again. I figured the family had moved or something. I made several attempts to contact the family but never got a hold of anyone. Well, lo and behold, the girl signed up for orchestra this year! I though, OK, good, we can keep track of that bass. I'll just need to make sure I send home a new "Instrument Rental Agreement" contract so we can have documentation of where the bass is. Every class I reminded her, "Hey, I need that form, don't forget..." and each day she had some excuse as to why she didn't have it. (I left it in my mom's car, I need a new one, it rained and the form got wet and it's drying, my mom signed the wrong thing, etc...) One day she came to me and told me she needed to talk to me in my office. I shut the door and she broke down crying. She told me that last year her family was in some kind of financial hardship and they pawned the bass. She begged me not to kick her out of orchestra and that her mom was trying to get the bass back but just recently it had been sold. She said she'd work extra hard to practice in school even though she didn't have a bass at home. I gave her a hug and told her, "Sweet heart, your family's financial needs are not your responsibility, this is not your fault. I'm not going to kick you out of orchestra, don't worry, I'll figure out what we need to do." She wanted me to call her mom but I decided I should wait until I'd talked to my administrator to figure out what needed to happen next.
I knew something was up but I'd figured she broke the bass or lost it or something which is why she hadn't showed up for concerts or anything at the end of the year. Never would I have imagined her parents would have put her in that kind of position. I mean, how desperate must you have been do something like that to your child? And the poor thing had been lying to me about it for a year! I'm in the process of getting advice from my administrator and colleagues, but it sounds like we are going to issue a bill and tell the family if they don't pay the $1950.00 to replace the bass, we will file a police report for theft. I'm not in suburbia any longer...
Something else that happened that broke my heart involved a student who still hadn't gotten a violin after the second week of school. I'd already had to remove several students from my class because I'd run out of school violins to rent out so if a student couldn't rent their own instrument, they had to drop orchestra. I had given this particular student a little more time than the others because he was always engaged in class even without the instrument and made it a point to borrow his friend's instrument and try everything we were doing. Plus he told me that his mom was going to get the instrument Friday. The instrument did not arrive on Friday so I called the store and asked for a status update and the man on the phone said the student's parents needed to call them as soon as possible. I found out the next week that he couldn't rent an instrument because his parents didn't have a social security number. I told him I would do what I could to locate a violin for him to use and it turned out his aunt rented one for him instead. Sadly, I know this is not the only case of my students being children of illegals. There was a happy ending though and the kid is thriving in orchestra, so, that's good I guess.
Now for my woes. 32 weeks pregnant at this point and everything is just big big big. My worst symptoms of late have been swollen feet and hands. I call my feet "Shrek feet" (stole the term from a colleague) because they are huge and creased at the ankle an they don't fit into any of my shoes. I had to buy some comfy Nike sandals that I wear with everything when I'm not wearing my tennis shoes, which need to be loosened so much I can't tie them. It's a disgusting blow to my fashion ego. My "sausage fingers" are super attractive too. It's difficult to play in tune on the E string on my violin at school. I've developed a little sympathy for my large-handed boys who never play in tune. My heart burn has raged it's ugly head again with a hotter and more painful vengeance. I don't sleep at night for at least one of several reasons. 1. I'm too hot. 2. I can't find a comfortable position despite my body pillow. 3. My heartburn is too painful. 4. I have to get up to pee at least five different times then try to fall back to sleep. 5. My brain just randomly wakes me up. 6. I get hungry and have to get up and eat something. I'm lucky if I get a solid 5 hours. I feel like a zombie as I walk into school. My poor students... My final most recent symptom is that the tips of my fingers in my right hand go numb. It's mostly my ring and middle fingers, but today my pointer finger was also numb. Very bizarre...
The good news is I have less than five weeks of school left before fall break; then I can sleep whenever I want. Correction: I can sleep whenever my body/brain allows me to sleep. I don't have to be on my feet all the time and I can do a few things around the house instead of having to be propped up on the couch whenever I'm not at school in order for the swelling to go down. And before I know it, I'll have a brand new set of woes, accompanied by my sweet baby boy.
