Rain is Nature's way of telling you it thinks you ought to grow :) It's been damp here but not particularly wet, and I'm quite liking it. The visa is finally underway and will take two weeks (and an eye-watering amount of money), and my Russian lessons have brought me up to verbs of motion and the discovery that my primary teaching source gets it all wrong. Which isn't great. Anyway....
A rainy day The clouds were ashen grey and would have been suitable for a funeral. Rain had been falling since before any of the teachers had woken, and most of them had arrived too late to grab a cup of coffee before the morning staff meeting because of the increased traffic on the roads. There were rumours abounding that Old Unreliable was about to re-emerge from some hidden location around the town and the radio announced three times an hour that the Sixticton Fire Brigade (all four members) were on stand-by just in case. The headmaster, dressed in a suit as grey as the clouds, looked at the staff gathered in the meeting and took his glasses off to polish them. Before he put them back on his face he started. "We have another small issue over licensing rights," he said. He huffed on the lenses of his glasses, and polished them using the tail of his tie. "Some of you may remember when we had to adjust the name of the school." Most of the staff nodded, and the headmaster put his glasses back on too late to see. "Well, last week we were challenged over the Learning through Play programme. It would seem that Monsanto have copyrighted it somehow, and are being-" he looked down at papers in his hands, "-I thought it was vindictive, but apparently the word is litigious about it." Josh raised his hand. "I think you mean Montessori, not Monsanto," he said. Emma next to his shook her head. "No," she said. "There was a merger about six months ago, but it was very quiet. The new group are genetically engineering better children." "Oh. Can we get some?" "Please!" said the headmaster. "We obviously renamed the programme, but... well, we ran into similar problems with budget and printed materials as last time. So...," he heaved a huge sigh, "the new programme we -- you -- will all be teaching this year is now called Learning to be gay." There was a moment's silence then Emma spoke up. "The kids are mostly under the age of seven," she said. "Yes," said the headmaster. "We are going to have to provide a lot of context. I'm told there are websites-" "What will the parents say?" "We'll tell them we're referring to 'happy and carefree'," said the headmaster. "Can't we just teach them that as a fact?" "They're children," said the headmaster. "They're supposed to be that already. If they're not then we post them to social services, remember? In the boxes with airholes." Outside the rain started to fall more heavily.
Greg - I though rain was nature's way of telling me I need a bath.
Oh man, I can't wait to meet up with you again and hear you speak Russian. And don't worry, I won't know if you're getting it wrong :)
The idea of Monsanto merging with Montessori is legitimately horrifying. Though I think you've got it about right with your genetically engineering better children line.
I do so enjoy this setting of yours, by the way :D
2 comments:
Rain is Nature's way of telling you it thinks you ought to grow :) It's been damp here but not particularly wet, and I'm quite liking it. The visa is finally underway and will take two weeks (and an eye-watering amount of money), and my Russian lessons have brought me up to verbs of motion and the discovery that my primary teaching source gets it all wrong. Which isn't great.
Anyway....
A rainy day
The clouds were ashen grey and would have been suitable for a funeral. Rain had been falling since before any of the teachers had woken, and most of them had arrived too late to grab a cup of coffee before the morning staff meeting because of the increased traffic on the roads. There were rumours abounding that Old Unreliable was about to re-emerge from some hidden location around the town and the radio announced three times an hour that the Sixticton Fire Brigade (all four members) were on stand-by just in case.
The headmaster, dressed in a suit as grey as the clouds, looked at the staff gathered in the meeting and took his glasses off to polish them. Before he put them back on his face he started.
"We have another small issue over licensing rights," he said. He huffed on the lenses of his glasses, and polished them using the tail of his tie. "Some of you may remember when we had to adjust the name of the school." Most of the staff nodded, and the headmaster put his glasses back on too late to see. "Well, last week we were challenged over the Learning through Play programme. It would seem that Monsanto have copyrighted it somehow, and are being-" he looked down at papers in his hands, "-I thought it was vindictive, but apparently the word is litigious about it."
Josh raised his hand. "I think you mean Montessori, not Monsanto," he said. Emma next to his shook her head.
"No," she said. "There was a merger about six months ago, but it was very quiet. The new group are genetically engineering better children."
"Oh. Can we get some?"
"Please!" said the headmaster. "We obviously renamed the programme, but... well, we ran into similar problems with budget and printed materials as last time. So...," he heaved a huge sigh, "the new programme we -- you -- will all be teaching this year is now called Learning to be gay."
There was a moment's silence then Emma spoke up.
"The kids are mostly under the age of seven," she said.
"Yes," said the headmaster. "We are going to have to provide a lot of context. I'm told there are websites-"
"What will the parents say?"
"We'll tell them we're referring to 'happy and carefree'," said the headmaster.
"Can't we just teach them that as a fact?"
"They're children," said the headmaster. "They're supposed to be that already. If they're not then we post them to social services, remember? In the boxes with airholes."
Outside the rain started to fall more heavily.
Greg - I though rain was nature's way of telling me I need a bath.
Oh man, I can't wait to meet up with you again and hear you speak Russian. And don't worry, I won't know if you're getting it wrong :)
The idea of Monsanto merging with Montessori is legitimately horrifying. Though I think you've got it about right with your genetically engineering better children line.
I do so enjoy this setting of yours, by the way :D
Post a Comment