Oh, the Humanity

I was off last week as part of the many days that I have to take off. I did have to attend a computer training class last Friday, and my friends Matt and Mandi were there. Mandi spends some of her time in the office, so I asked her how the week of subs was going. I knew that the bulk of the days would be fine, since the long-term sub from last year was there, but I wondered about the other days. When I asked, she immediately said, "Well, I took the sub that was there on Monday off the sub list."

Now, let me explain. In order to be taken off the sub list, you really have to mess up. You make an off-handed remark to a student, you're off the list. You have no class management and require the principal to come in, you're off the list. Show up 5 minutes before the bell rings? Yep, you're off the list.

So I knew that what the sub did or did not do was pretty bad. Mandi went on to explain. First, she did not know how to turn on the computer. I agree, sometimes Macs can be a little tricky in how they're set-up, but I specifically spell out in my sub plans how to turn on the computer. As in, "When you're facing the computer, the power button is on the left side of the base". Mandi let her slide on that one, but the next series of events was unbelievable.

Apparently the former long-term sub was also subbing in another class in the building, so she came in to the library to ask the "new" sub if she had any questions. Here's how the conversation went:

Former Long-Term Sub (FLTS): Just checking in to see if you had any questions.

"New" Sub (NS): Uh, yes, I did. These books that need to be shelved - do they go in a particular place on the shelf?

FLTS: Yes, you see the spine of the book? There are letters and numbers on there that correspond with the specific location in the library.

NS: Oh. So these fiction books - they can go anywhere in the fiction section?

FLTS: No. There is one place and one place only for each book.

NS: Hmm.

FLTS: If you have any questions, you can just leave them here and I will shelf them tomorrow when I'm subbing.

Are you kidding me? Has this woman ever been in a library? Did she seriously think that all of the books are randomly put on the shelves? If so, do we spend hours looking for books anywhere in the library? I am still dumbfounded by this whole thing.

I get a little miffed when books are somewhat out of order (numerical or alphabetical) in a small section. I couldn't imagine the frustration that I would feel in a whole library that was mis-shelved.

What would Dewey say? Oh, I think he would take her off the list too.