Hello, friends.
Are you sick of me mentioning the past week has been busy? Not only am I sick of writing it, but I’m sick of having them. This coming week will be more of the same with appointments for my father, for me, and other things. The only thing I’m really looking forward to comes at the end of the week as a certain bounty hunter and his 500-year-old son come to the big screen so I can revert back to four-to-six years old for a bit.
Welcome to the 173rd installment of Gauthic Times, the newsletter about my writing, my life, and climate surveys. If you’re a reader who subscribes via Substack, my website, or Patreon, your encouragement helps motivate me. I’m not breaking any records but I’m thankful to have any audience.
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I worked on notes for the future fantasy/science fiction project last week. I don’t think I’m ready to start it, though. I need to read a few things first.
I also worked on notes for what I’m growing to believe will be my next horror novel.
Lastly, I also worked on notes for a memoir that I think I’ll begin writing very soon. I’m trying to decide whether I’ll post the first draft of the memoir to my Patreon first. Since Patrons may be the only people actually interested in it, that may be fitting. It’ll be a memoir about how fandom and certain media shaped me into the person I am, especially since a certain movie turns 50 in 2027, along with a certain writer.
I’ve had so little time (or energy) lately to devote to writing. Even this newsletter has been pushed through the noise. But these things, will happen. Eventually.
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The end of the school year quickly approaches so the season of climate surveys has arrived. Students are being given climate surveys about school, admin is asking us to take climate surveys, and so is our union. Ostensibly, these surveys are supposed to be anonymous but is one ever truly anonymous in the digital age? Especially when it comes to the portion where I can write my thoughts down. I suspect that it’d be easy for someone who’d have an interest to compare my writing easily. Not that I think that would happen, because I really don’t, but if I wrote what I want to write, it may ruffle enough feathers where someone might. The real problem I’m having with the climate survey that arrived in my inbox this morning from the union is that I don’t think it’s only the school’s fault for the current feelings about the climate.
I don’t think it would be “talkin’ outta school” to say that the climate, from observations, is not good. Morale is down. People are tired, frustrated, sad, and overwhelmed. Initiatives come and go, PD comes and goes, a new set of acronyms replace an old set of acronyms, and the wheel turns. This administrator doesn’t listen to them, but that one doesn’t listen to them, and who are these administrators because even though they’ve been here for five or six years, they’ve almost never come into my classroom or even formally introduced themselves. We’re working more for less outcome, less money, less benefits, and more issues and problems.
But it’s not just the school. It’s all schools. Or, at least, many schools.
Go onto social media for teachers and you’ll see that burnout and morale is low in United States education. I’ve written about it here for a while so don’t really feel like getting too much into it again for fear of boring you, but it’s something that I cannot escape because it’s my livelihood and affects everything.
Students are coming into high school not ready for high school. Discipline is addressed randomly and many times secretly because the issues the students face outside of school are often confidential. So maybe the kid who told their teacher to “fuck off” is acting out because he’s afraid for the safety and welfare of his family, or maybe she’s worried because an adult in her life is providing the care and encouragement she needs, or maybe there’s some significant mental health issues that—even though teachers are privy to some of that information—is not explained in a way that would help one understand. All those things could be true. Of course, it’s also true that the kid could just be an asshole, or their parents are, or the teacher is. Whatever it is, teachers around the country are at a loss because students get sent out of the room and sent back. Punishment only works if it changes the punished and too often, the students who are punished simply do not care. Maybe it’s difficult to care about the rules of the teacher when you’re worried ICE might be kidnapping your loved ones while you’re in school.
Societal issues are the core of the problem. Top to bottom. The MAGA folks don’t want real education and do everything in their power to counteract critical thinking. Some of the left have issues with books written in the past because they might use ideas and language from the past. Both sides are upset with an author or a historical politician for views that may or may not have anything to do with what they wrote. Teachers are worried about mentioning anything because they could get in trouble from parents, colleagues, students, or anyone in between. Heaven help whoever teaches that the world is round, that evolution is real, that slavery is bad, that the Nazis were actually pretty fucking evil (and so were slavers), that the Civil Rights and Equal Rights movements were good things, that Vietnam and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were all wrong and huge mistakes, and that the strength of the United States is as much about its ideals as it is about its history. And that’s just a part of it.
All of that comes into schools, which are being forced to teach based on data that I’m convinced is mostly bullshit. Numbers may not be biased but they necessarily take into account all factors.
The fact is, I imagine that the climate surveys are going to be taken and used to make changes that won’t matter much because the changes are bigger than any single school or school district. Until education and educators are treated and paid like the professionals they are required to be, morale in most schools will be low. When everyone is worried about their ability to pay bills and rent, when everyone is worried that loved ones can’t receive the help and care they need, when everyone is suspect of motivations of everyone else, and when the leadership of the United States cannot be trusted because it actively encourages division and the dissolution of education, how can any climate survey really be expected to help?
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It occurs to me that recently I’ve been writing about Serious Things That Matter…to me.
Are you, dear reader, okay with it?
I never intend to sit down to write these kinds of diatribes but they often pour out. Reading the essays and columns of Harlan Ellison in my formative years brought me the courage to open my big mouth but, let’s face it, I’m no Harlan Ellison.
Are you cool with it? I’ve always thought that a newsletter (or blog) about my writing and me should come from whatever pops into my head when I’m working on it, but I also want to give readers an experience they appreciate. I mean, I write about ghost girls and monsters in closets but here I am talking about education and society.
On the other hand, I guess this finds its way into the stories, too. Is there anything you’d like to see or know about?
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That’s this week’s newsletter. Thank you so much for subscribing, reading, and for your support. Be safe out there, friends.
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Gautham: Bill Gauthier.com 
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