Bong Bears His Soul.... (your chance to hit him now!)

I've been tutoring autistic pre-school'ers since last September. I loved (note past tense) working with them.

I officially notified the school district a fucking, goddamn, son-of-a-bitch month in advance that I was taking my usual vacation with au ohana to Hawai'i in March.

They stupid son-of-a-bitches waited until Friday, the day before we leave, to inform Mr Bong that "vacation denied!".

I mean come on. This is a 9 hour a week job at $13.00/hr. I obviously don't do it for the money. I did it because of the pure love and satisfaction that I received from these young men of the future. So I was told I either resign or am fired. I chose resign...

When the boys saw me parking my truck in the parking lot, they all clamored to the class door, "there's Kevin (my Christian name)". They loved me and I them.

Unfortunately, the school district didn't "approve" my vacation. How myopic.

Well, I'm still pursuing my credential as a teacher in Special Education, because most folks don't want to work with the rejected, but I do...

A good friend of mine works with a autistic child and we have gotten together with her for a play date with my kids. She says it helps with social behavior. I admire your choice to work with special needs children and the schools loss will be anothers gain.

First you give a compliment to Benzart and then open yourself up.

More power to ya Bong! Wow, whenever I start whining about how hard my job is or what long hours I work and blah blah blah....c'mon, I make f%@#*n' video games!

I really admire what you do for these kids. I reserve my greatest admiration for people who choose to help our kids the way you do. Bless you. I hope it all works out for you.

Mahalo!

Good for you Bong! It always seems that the stupid sons a bitches that run these power mad civil institutions like the Goddamn school boards always seem to lose all their best candidates for stoopid reasons like the stunt they pulled on you. No matter how bad I ever want or need their miserable scrap of a job I never miss an opportunity to tell 'em where to shove it when they can't seem to find the decency to treat a worker with common courtesy. Way to stick it to the man!
Careful though, or you might end up like me,stuck in your garage, bitchin about the government, and making Tikis for a living!

TikisbySeamus.com

[ Edited by: seamus on 2005-03-19 20:09 ]

Damn, Seamus, that's one of my favorite pics of all time. Wish I had put it up on JT's post instead. After all, we do own the JCMPD ("Johnny Cash Memeorial Patio Deck"):
http://www.tikibot.com/deck/deck.html

Bong is a braddah
and this I know
I can see his heart
is made outta gold

I knew befo I met him
he was my kinda brah
destined from above
no one debate

If you haven't met da' Bong
take da' time to
cuz if you don't meet him now
wen gonna you foo

He's a surfkat crazed braddah
tiki gone mad
so tip one up now
fo' him and his ohana

Here's to you Kevin! :drink:

As you've probably uncovered, autistic kids love LOVE the ukulele. I think it's the size and elegant simplicity of it - easy to grasp yet still musical.

Congrats on your decision, though.

Family First. Hawai'i Second. All else, third.

My stepson Michael is autistic. We were in Hilo Hatties last night and he picked up a ukelele. Marian asked him if he wanted one and he said yes. He's been walking around struming his uke all day. I was surprised how nice it sounded and I told him our friend Pablus palys the uke. That was all before I read this post....
Excuse me while I go shed a tear. You guys are the best.
KG

Some day the F-ing upper crust will get a clue. You did right. They'll call you back, whining.

I'm really sorry to hear this Bong. I see first hand every day how much love you teachers give out to the kids. Our Autistic class teacher somehow manages to drive back and forth between a school on each side of town. She much like yourself loves "her" kids. I have nothing but respect and admiration for you all. Enjoy your trip, you will find a place that will treat you right!

Hey Bong!
Hawaii can even heal shit like this.
Catch a wave for us when your there.
The Finger

Like everyone else, good on you for your work. I know there is no way I could handle that myself.

It guys like you that restore your faith in people. I dont think we see enough of that.

"There is nothing like a couple of boards and some choice waves to cheer you up" Badly quoted Lilo and Stitch

WARNING, rather lengthy public school rant below

as i sit here, in front of my public school issued laptop and in the funky-smelling mold-producing 1972 trailer (with yellow-jackets...YES, yellow-jackets living in the hole-littered walls and ceiling) which is 'parked' in a far away corner of the school, i have to say that bong's situation really chaps my hide. what is up with public schools and special ed? dont they realize that they have the highest burn-out rate due to stress? wouldnt it make SENSE to offer and let employees TAKE vacation time? shouldnt time off be ENCOURAGED to people genuinely interested in this teaching area to guarantee future teachers?

i almost fell into a similar trap a year ago with our dandy administration. the hat won an all-expense paid trip to the super bowl and i had to take a week off. i filled out the appropriate forms and right before i turned them in, the principal luckily informed me that i should NOT report the reason why i need these days off. we have "personal necessity" days in which you do not (and SHOULD not) have to put an explanation for time off.

maybe this is a little after the fact, but bong--didnt you have to join some sort of union with this job? if so, i think you could cream your district with this situation.

what also really steams me is that there are some really sucky-ass sped teachers who dont do CRAP all day long. they view their class as glorified baby-sitting and get excited when they get a really severe kid tranferring into their classroom because that usually means an extra aide. (wow! more people to do THEIR job) i have the pleasure of working with one of these teachers (who i firmly believe is autistic due to his horrible pragmatics and eye contact--it is constantly on my chest!) it is such a shame to hear that a school district is shooing away an excellent candidate for special ed due to a vacation. a vacation!??! ugh...this disgusts me.

kevin, i really hope you stick with this. as you probably already know, if you can put up with the administration bs, the job is extremely rewarding intrinsically.

Boy, I Hate to see a relationship end this way and something tells me that Raffer is right about them calling you back to work. You did the right thing of course, and Good for you. Just too bad about the kids who will miss you for awhile.
I can't help but think it was the Doors. Once they saw those, they knew a Crazy tiki lover was inside. They just didn't see the Real person inside who loves those kids like they were his own.

Tikicleen, my dad was a high school teacher, and never a day went by that he didn't rant and rave about the idiocies of educational administration and how impossible these a$$holes made it to really teach his kids. I honestly think it gave him an ulcer. But he just loved his students so he kept on, for years.

Not to mention, teachers do one of the most important jobs there is and the pay SUCKS. What IS that!?

Thank heaven there are people like Bong who do it for love, or our kids would be in deep you-know-what...

Good for Kevin for standing up to the jerks! Enjoy the vacation!! xo tikivixen

quit something you love and believe in over a denied vacation??? whoa bud, that's sour... life deals some pretty serious bummers, dude, but having a vacation rejected ain't one of 'em. i'd hate to have witnessed the tantrum... yikes!

instead of visiting the comforts of hawaii, maybe a visit to the slums of brazil, south central or iraq may be the medicine needed here...

[ Edited by: sonofasonofabeach 2005-07-08 10:55 ]