I want to get out while I still can

Never mind, there's a good film showing tonight
Where they hang everyone everybody who can read and write
Oh, that could never happen here but then again it might
--- Elvis Costello, "Invisible Man"

No work today, this being the last day of our "spring break."

I baby-sat for two of my favorite girls in the preschool, sisters D & L. I walked them over to the park and they ran around a bit on the playground. It was nearly 100 degrees today, though, so we didn't stay long. I made them lunch and watched a "Dora the Explorer" video. (Shouldn't it be "Dora the Explora?" That would be hella cooler.) I never saw one before; I liked the use of Spanish vocabulary, the interaction with the viewers, and the encouragement of physical movement. However, I found each program to be too structured and repetitive. Not for me, of course! For kids. I know kids like structure and need to hear things several times, but do they really need to hear the goddam map sing "I'm a map" fifteen times in a row every single show?

Anyway.

I got $40 for four hours'... well, I hesitate to call it "work," because it was mildly fun, mostly boring and no challenge to my mental or physical faculties.

***

State School was having none of that holiday crap, though, so off I motored to my penultimate Reading I class. We split into small groups and read children's books to one another (encouraging interaction such as call-and-response from the audience), then rated each other's performance. We were finished by 8:00 p.m. Oddly, the putative function of this class is to prepare students to be teachers; as usual, there was very little sign of that in this session. I mean, I'm already a preschool teacher and I read books to kids many times every day, but this activity certainly wasn't going to turn tyros into teachers, either. Too little, too late. What a colossal waste of time, gas, and money.

(Oh, hush, Mr. Grumpy.)

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Added Beaucoup Kevin to the blogroll, a move long overdue, as Kevin is one smart and funny fellow.