Book drop

A few days ago, after having a tooth extracted, I was so happy about not being in pain anymore that I decided that as an act of goodwill I should go back to work, even though they don't pay us until Sept. 4. Realistically, if this year--my tenure year--is to go well I need about seven days before school starts to get the library together.

Today I woke up to the local newspaper reporting that my school is one of about a dozen in the county in deep you know what over No Child Left Behind--that the school is in the fourth year of "needs improvement" over the standardized tests. Our gift from George W.--kids are expected to perform well even if they are below 100 IQ or can't speak English and with declining funding to support education. My school, although it made progress last year with a new principal at the helm, has everything working against it--100% minority, mostly poor, 95% Latino, many of them children of undocumented immigrants--and supply budgets of practically zero.


So today I bit the bullet--after all, I am decently paid and grateful for full medical benefits--and spent about $100 (reimbursement doubtful) to rent a pickup and buy an improvised book drop. The Rag Shop was going out of biz so I bought a huge, deep rectangular merchandise cart on wheels. Hauled it to school and will wrap in purple felt and have second graders decorate it the first week of school. If you think NOT having a book drop is not a big deal, try substituting a hodgepodge of milk crates as I had to the past two years--the kids get confused, mixups invariably happen, they grab them out before they've been checked in--in other words, I needed a proper book drop! However, a crappy particleboard book drop from the vendors is about $1,500 and my broke school was not about to hand that over. So I have this great, improvised book drop--all I need are four springs from and a particleboard base from Home Depot, and we;re in business. Yes, I am proud of my resourcefulness. A woman and man we;re helping me load it into the pickup and I explained what it was for, since there are so many people out there harboring the myth that urban schools are swimming in state money. I like to go around busting THAT myth.