zeptember

So…the latest round of employment needs to be discussed.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009: I had my first interview. This was with the owner of a Montessori school, which houses children aged 3 to 12 if I recall correctly. I had to fill out an application twice because they needed two original printed copies, she said. I was told my college transcripts would not apply save for one course; Child Development. I was told there was an Early Childhood Education class being offered at the school next week, and asked if I’d like to join it. I said yes, because whether or not I was hired, this is important for me to take, so that I am employable elsewhere (Not all daycares and schools will accept my college transcripts. This is what I found out when I first set foot in California back in 1997, and is partially why I went into the dotcom field instead).
I was told I’d need a physical if I were to be hired, because my last physical was slightly over a year ago and it has to be updated every 12 months. I was told to come back on Thursday to interview with the director of the school.

Thursday, April 2, 2009: I met with the director of the school. During the interview, the director made it clear she’d not had time to review my resume, references, application or college transcripts. She asked me to fill her in as to what the owner and I had talked about on Tuesday. While I talked, I said, “and if I am hired…” she stopped me short and looked at me, and told me, “uh, you’re already hired.”

Oh! Well! Nobody seems to have told me this!

I stumbled over my words, thanked her for being hired, and told her I thought this was second round interview, not orientation, and told her that had I known this, I’d have mentioned on Tuesday that I’d be out of country, soon. I told the director, “this could be a dealbreaker, but I’m going out of country on honeymoon for most of May.”

She looked agitated and rang up the owner of the daycare, as well as the human resources person. Then she left the room and they all met for a moment to talk and discuss. The director came back and told me I would be fine, I’m still hired. She told me the first two weeks are probationary, anyway, and after that, I’m considered a full-time permanent employee.
This ended what I thought was second round interview, and then what I thought was orientation. But now that I’m hired, I came away feeling like I’d not gotten any details about what room I’d be placed in, my hours or anything outside of my pay rate. I was told they didn’t know where I’d be placed yet and what hours I’d be working, and that it would all be worked out by Monday.

I was asked if I could stick around for a bit to observe the daily schedule in one of the preschool rooms. I said yes. The children seemed to be all over the place because the school was on vacation that week, so it was being used as a daycare instead of school. When the children went out for recess, it became apparent to me that I was being kept there because they were over ratio, which is illegal. I allowed myself to be used as an extra unpaid supervisory adult, because I wanted to get a feel for the place.

I ended up staying for a total of five hours from the moment I set foot in the building til when I left for the day.
I was asked if I could come back the next day to do more “observing”, and then start the Early Childhood Education class the following week. I said yes.

Friday, April 3, 2009: I only stayed for a couple of hours this time, and then came back home. Again, I was told that the details for my employment would be ready on Monday - that no one knew yet where I’d be placed.

Monday, April 6, 2009: I showed up at 9am for class, only to find out class had started at 8am. I showed my paper to the school owner to prove that it read 9am. She apologised, and said two copies had been accidentally distributed. Once all of us arrived around 9am, class begun again.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009: We were supposed to have class from 8am - 10am, then again from 1pm - 5pm, but we ended up going straight through from 8am - 5pm. The owner of the school asked us in the morning if it would be alright. I was a little put off by this but agreed to stay.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009: Again, we were supposed to have class from 8am - 10am and then break until 1pm, but without being asked, the class was held straight through to 5pm.
It was on this day that two things happened to further piss me off:

1. As we toured through the classrooms on one of our assignments, an assistant teacher asked me if what we were doing was for the ECE units. I smiled and told her yes. She told me that I might like to know that these ECE units are NOT the ECE units I think they are, that they are Montessori-specific ECE units and not considered valid by an accredited school. I thanked this teacher and told her I’d check in with the owner. Inside, my blood was boiling at having been deceived into spending $161 on a course I thought was for something else.

2. As we toured through the classrooms looking for examples of how culture and ethnicity is available to the children in each room, we found none. Each person who came back to the owner to report this was told to try one particular teacher’s room for examples. This particular teacher just so happens to be the owner’s daughter. I and another student remarked how biased this was, and we wondered between ourselves if this is the room parents are shown when they tour the school. When I saw the owner was alone for a moment, I went to her and told her I was not finding examples of culture and ethnicity in other rooms, and no, not even in her daughter’s room. The owner got defensive at this point, and cited that the school has won awards for cultural diversity, and that they rotate materials out of the rooms all the time. A teacher in one of the classrooms later told me that the owner does not like posters on the walls in any of the rooms, and that partially explains why there’s no year-round cultural and ethnic materials around. But there wasn’t even books or puzzles or anything else. The owner explained this away by saying they have a broad category of such materials in the library. Which is true - I looked - but it’s not in the classroom as the Montessori ECE practicum asks me to look for and cite.

When class was finished that day, I asked if I could meet with the owner in private. She said yes and we talked in her office. I meekly and politely confronted her about the ECE thing and how I felt mislead. She refused to say outright that there was any sort of difference, growing defensive again, saying that it certainly is held in regard by accredited schools. She went on to list American Montessori Society (AMS) at the top of her list.

I thanked her for her time, and went home to think about this. She obviously either meant to deceive or is so wrapped up in her Montessori world that she doesn’t UNDERSTAND what I was asking.

By Thursday morning, I’d calmed down, and decided that getting ECE in both general education and Montessori education isn’t all that bad after all, and I can’t beat the discount price I paid for the class. So I forgave the owner and returned to class.

Thursday, April 9, 2009: The owner made a point to clarify the class she was teaching, and made sure everyone understood it is valid by accredited Montessori schools, and that we can go anywhere with this certification we will be earning. Again, she refused to state openly that these were ONLY Montessori-specific ECE units, but she did state the AMS again, so I hope people understood this fine distinction, lest they be disappointed later that they haven’t earned the California general ECE units.
The owner also had several science fair type three-panel boards to use for show and tell proof that they have culturally sensitive materials in the school. These materials of course were pulled out of storage to show us, and we were told the materials rotate through the classrooms every so often. A classmate and I shot each other the following look to sum up this contrived bullshit:

Friday, April 10, 2009: Our last day of class. We had another full day of it from 8:30am - 5pm. This is where a lot of my best learning was had - I’d waited all week just to touch the math toys in the classrooms, and learn how they worked. I was so excited by all the math tools! I seriously wished I’d grown up in a Montessori environment. I know I’d have learned math properly. The week ended on a positive note and everyone gave hugs and some of us exchanged numbers and emails before parting ways for the weekend.