DecPhoMo 2

After the Navy, I was an English teacher in Japan.  Teaching is a very high status job there, and while I didn’t feel I was any great shakes as a teacher, it was a good job that paid me more than I’ve ever made since.

One of my classes was in a "private" lesson format for adults.  One of my students was a zoo keeper (for the white tigers) in a local zoo, and we all went to visit him one day:

Once again in this life, I am associated with the Education System; I drive a school bus for all three levels of public schools in my district, Elementary, Middle, and High schools.  Nowadays my primary lesson is how to ride the bus responsibly.

Yesterday was "interesting".  Two of the Middle School boys began fighting on my bus as we waited for the kids to load up.  I am not allowed to touch the kids, and I am not allowed to say much of anything to them.  It was by force of voice and presence that I separated the boys and set them in seats a bus length apart.

One of the drivers just past training, and in his 60 day Eval period, had a fight break out on his bus last year, and he did touch the boys, and he did say some stuff that the cameras caught, and he was fired.  Inviting the boys to be men about it and take it outside, with him, was not the right thing to say.

It seems like a "damned if you do, damned if you don’t" kind of situation, and I wondered at the time what I would do if a fight broke out on my bus.  I got a chance to find out yesterday, but my heart was pounding, for sure.

I liked my job teaching English, but the Japanese economy tanked while I was here getting my college degree, and I’ve never gone back to that line of work.  The Middle School run this morning was probably the best behaved of all this school year, and I said barely a word to my crowd of kids.

Perhaps I have taught them something.

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