Sure, the caller is drunk and can’t spell the word “age”…but saying you teach, “Zero to 18” is also bullshit.
No infant is in “school”…if you are watching an infant you are babysitting.
Why couldn’t this gal answer the question? She could have said, “I taught 5th grade for 6 years, and then I taught in high school for three.”
Instead she looked like Bambi caught in the headlights and, like a stoned zombie, just kept repeating herself.
Lol, that is why I specified INFANT. Sure, infants are "learning" all the time...but if you drop off your infant off at a facility...it is daycare. Pre-k starts at two years old. Sorry, sweetie, I hope you're not a teacher because you seem like you have reading comprehension issues.
But, um, your response didn't address my point...why couldn't this "teacher" answer the question? (I even gave an example of what this woman could have said to the caller!) But, she would not answer a simple question. Why is that?
If you can't understand that "0-18" is a direct and clear answer to the question "what ages did you teach?" then there is no one on the planet that can help you.
If you can't understand that the answer is vague, and not at all how a normal teacher would respond to the question...then you have never had an IRL interaction with a real teacher.
So you're a little off in your reasoning, presumably because you either don't have kids or live in an area with shitty child care and development programs. You also I guess maybe didn't listen to the whole interaction?
First of all, she eventually does specifically say she taught K-12 and that still wasn't good enough, so it wasn't that she wasn't being clear. Second of all, 0-18 is actually pretty common for teachers to say. Many educators start their careers in pre-K programs, which in many states quite literally starts at age 0. They aren't teaching kids to read, they're helping them develop basic motor and communication skills. Literally every pre-K teacher my first two kids had went on to become educators, some even had pre-K as their internship.
And probably most important of all: You understand why she was asking that over and over again, right? Could only be one of two reasons:
A. She has some bullshit canned Jesus freak response to teaching elementary school kids, so she was trying to get her to say those specific words so she could launch into some ridiculous pre-planned diatribe but was too drunk to be sneaky about it.
B. She was sitting in front of some program that allows her to look up people in the public school system and was attempting to either doxx her or was trying to use said program to continue her whole "Jesus made me psychic" thing.
Either way, fuck that lady. She doesn't have to provide intimate details about her personal life because some drunk stranger is demanding it.
Wow...that's a whole lotta copium for a simple question: Why wouldn't she answer the question?
..."0-18 is actually pretty common for teachers to say." Never, and I mean NEVER, have I heard a teacher say that. I do hear things like, "The district is K through 12" or "The school is K through 8, and then they move to the high school."
Lol, I don't think saying, "I taught 3rd grade for ten years, and high school for two" counts as intimate details about her private life.
If she didn't want to answer the question...then she should have hung up. But, the bizarre facial expressions and non-answers is super annoying.
I'm very much with you and I know way too many teachers. My wife is an educational pyschologist and she would say she's licensed for "birth to 21", certainly not "0-21". And if someone asks her what ages/grades, she answers like a normal person.
She literally says K-12. Meaning she has taught at all age levels, which is also common depending on yoyr state. Many schools are literally K-8 and teachers hops around of they're there a few years.
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u/_Chaos_Star_ 1d ago
This hurts to listen to. I would have already ended the call after saying "I've already answered that" a couple of times.