And Like Magic, Everybody Looks Dumb

Last Updated on: 9th December 2021, 07:09 pm

We have an update on the wizard supply teacher, this one even more disconcerting than the first story, but for different reasons.

The first story said Jim Piculas was fired for wizardry. Now this story claims there’s more, and I can understand some of it being somewhat more serious. I’m still not sure if immediate termination was necessary, but maybe if I saw the details of the stuff he supposedly did, I’d tell him to not let the door hit him on the ass on his way out. They mentioned not following the lesson plans. Whatever. I had lots of supply teachers just let us do our homework, or they brought in stuff of their own. But it depends what he was substituting for lesson plans, I guess. The report then mentioned letting a student be in charge of the class, which he said didn’t happen, but that’s all hearsay for now. Finally, the most serious was use of profane language and failing to control the class. I understand the profanity being bad, but the failing to control the class is still ambiguous to me, because I can’t count the number of times our class completely terrorized supply teachers and were nothing but a pile of brats, especially when we were the age of these kids. Our class made a teacher quit teaching, for crying out loud! But I remember seeing supply teachers who had 0 pull in the classroom come back afterward. If all of the teachers who couldn’t control us were terminated, the board would have to hire a rash of new teachers. But it depends how out of control we’re talking. If this is all true, then it sucks that everyone seized on the wizardry, and the news folk didn’t try to dig a little deeper. But it gets far worse than shitty research, and none of the players manage to redeem themselves.

First off, let’s pick on Jim Piculas himself. He went to the media and overemphasized the wizardry claim to get attention. Then he was shocked, appalled, and horrified that people jumped all over it, gave him the attention he was looking for, and contacted the schoolboard about his case. Hey numbnut, what did you think would happen? Did you think people would do nothing? Sure, some would, but when you’re trying to provoke rage and anger, don’t you know that that’s what some people will do? You look like an ass.

Now, let’s slap Joe Public around for a while, because he is an idiot. Some people, after reading various incarnations of the story, decided to take action. They let their fingers do the walking through the yellow pages, and found various school officials, including board of education member Marge Whaley. But did they leave a well-thought-out message expressing their displeasure? Nope! That would require too much effort! Instead, they called her a fucking idiot, and an incompetent turd on her voicemail. Ok, Joe Public, let her earn incompetent turd status before slapping her with it, because I find that insult to be funny as hell. People need to realize that yelling explitives and not well-reasoned diatribes at officials doesn’t usually end well and you probably won’t get heard properly. What good is having a one-sided conversation anyway, aside from the fact that you feel better after leaving a pile of steaming vitriol on someone’s voicemail? It certainly won’t reinstate Jim Piculas.

But wait, the multidirectional stupid stick is heading over to give Marge Whaley a sound thumping, because she deserves it. She said, and I quote, “It really made me stop and think, because I go to the Internet for information, say, to look at information on medication I’m taking. Now I’ll be more careful. You really can’t count on every Web site … because you’re likely to get information that isn’t true.”

Uh, duh! And you’re responsible for the teaching of children. What was one of the first things I was told when being introduced to the internet? You have to weigh the source because anyone can post anything. There are no research standards, and no publishing body that screens stuff. If you really need information, look for credible websites that you know are affiliated with real live well-established companies or bodies. Or, cross-reference the hell out of what you’re looking for. Don’t just believe everything you read. I know this woman is from a different generation, one that didn’t even get the internet when they were teenagers, but come on! This shouldn’t be a revelation to anyone anymore.

They mention in the story that people google out people’s names to see what the internet has to say about them. Let’s do what we can do to move this one to the top of google. Jim Piculas Jim Piculas Jim Piculas Jim Piculas Jim Piculas Jim Piculas! Ah, that’s good. And,for good measure, Marge Whaley Marge Whaley Marge Whaley Marge Whaley Marge Whaley Marge Whaley.

I still think there’s more to the story, and I’m sure it’s only bound to get weirder. Hopefully we’ll see more of this as the ride continues.

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