Page 1 of Defined and Defiled
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Sentient (adj.)
sen·tient : capable of sensing or feeling : conscious of or responsive to the sensations of seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, or smelling
It does not matter your age; no one likes being summoned to the principal's office.
“You are looking well today, Miss Sumner.”
I wonder if it’s worth it to remind Principal Bailey he should not remark on my appearance. ‘Looking well’ is an improvement over the ‘I bet the kids call you the hot teacher’ comment from last month. Never mind that it's not true. The kids are more likely to call me cheugy and millennial than hot, as it should be.
Bailey scratches at the side of his salt-n-pepper beard when I don’t give him anything in return. His office is colder than the rest of the school. He has his wall lined with his diplomas and awards, but most of his desk is filled with Wonder Bells paraphernalia. A bobblehead of Hunter Rodney nods back at me from his desk.
“Well, you see,” He clears his throat. “I’m afraid there have been a few complaints from some concerned parents saying you’ve been encouraging cheating in your class? That can’t be true.” He makes a noise that’s between a chuckle and a cough before he gestures for me to deny the claims.
“What I specifically said was if you are going to cheat, do so in a clever way. I’d rather be outwitted than have another essay full of 'as an artificial intelligence, I cannot find blah blah blah' on my desk.”
Bailey stops Rodney from nodding along on his desk.
“Shirley, I’ll level with you.” He spreads his hands out in front of him, the tan line from where his wedding ring used to live catches my attention for a moment. “We like you here, but you need to be more careful with your wording. I don’t mind the students getting a little help now and then, wouldn’t you agree?”
For a moment, Bailey and I engage in the world's most pathetic staring contest. The other teachers have told me fables of the days whenhe used to care, but those must have ended well before I switched districts. If I had to guess, it likely ended around the time the wedding ring slipped off.
“If I am doing my job correctly, they should be able to learn the skills they need in my class to form their own work.” I sigh. “But I won’t be ‘encouraging’ cheating anymore.”
Bailey smiles at me and nods his head, clearly relieved I relented so quickly. Too bad for him, I’m not done.
“Moving along, I would like to know where we are with getting the new burners I requested?”
Bailey’s smile vanishes as quickly as it appeared.
“It looks like we're going to have to pass this time, Shirley. Maybe try again next year?”
“So we want the kids not to use their brains for English or science? Principal Bailey, with all due respect, I submitted a request for those burners months ago. The ones we have now, if they did not get shattered, they’re filledwith this weird gelatinous goo.” I still have nightmares about slime-ageddon. When a strange sticky substance ends up on the kids supplies, sometimes it’s better to not ask questions and just move all the glue to a locked cabinet.
“About that, the district thinks it may be best to steer the kids away from experimenting with, well, anything for right now.”
Something was always exploding or disappearing in this town, but that was not a good enough reason to discourage the children from learning.
“Besides, do they need to do the experiments themselves? I'm sure there are plenty of videos you could show your class instead.”
Providing that the WiFi didn't go down, again. Bailey is not subtle when he glances at his watch. We’ve had this discussion too many times for me not to know when he wants me to take my leave.
“Thank you for your time, Principal Bailey. I will see myself out.”
“For what it's worth, Shirley, your proposal was well-written. We just don't have the funds right now.”
Our new gymnasium implied otherwise. This was the latest in a long list of proposals I'd been shot down for and the sting never lessened.
Marge barely looks up when I walk out of Bailey's office. Her candy dish makes a scraping sound as she slides it over towards me.
“No luck?”
I sigh and pluck a peppermint from the top of her dish, pocketing it. Maybe if I eat stolen peppermints for dinner for the next month, I can afford to buy new burners for at least some of my kids.
“No. But I did get reprimanded for not accepting AI in my classroom.”
Marge has been a secretary since the school was first built. She was one of those ladies who always pushed off retirement. Even death couldnot get her to give up her pension. She choked on a hard candy and still showed up to work the next day.
