Thursday, August 21, 2008

Interesting Day

This morning, I went through the high school orientation with my daughter. I had promised her that I would not sit near her, and I didn't, but to my surprise, when they went to do the abbreviated tour of the classrooms they'd be using starting on Monday, she asked me to come along, so I did. Most of the classes were not surprising, but two -- French and Science -- scared me. The instructor in French is from France, and she spoke for twenty seconds in fluent French to the class -- most of whom, my daughter included, didn't get it. She seemed surprised at that. And the Science instructor -- oh, my lord. He said it was a fast, intense course, and they'd likely think that their text was a college text. My daughter likes science, but she likes middle school science. This is a whole nother ball of wax.

I learned that I'm going to be a supervisor at one of our local polling places, come next election. In fact, the supervisor.

And my wife learned today that yet another person has been laid off from her group. So far as they know, this was a drive-by firing, no reason, of a guy who was good at his job and well-regarded. You can just imagine what this does for her mood. Ah, EDS, whatever happened to your employee-oriented-ethic? Dead and buried these many years, I expect.

4 comments:

Lone Chatelaine said...

I don't think I could pass in school nowadays. It's gotten much more intense. College level in high school is not just for honors classes anymore.

My company will probably lay off again in November. I've learned to read the signs after layoffs every year for four years now. It's very disheartening.

Cerulean Bill said...

This is an advanced class, which causes me a little concern. Well, ok, a lot of concern. My daughter is smart, but not brilliant, and I think thats what this guy routinely expects.

As for the other -- yes, it sucks, to use a work that I try to keep my daughter from using. Never used to believe in unions, but I do now.

Unknown said...

We used to vie for French-class detention - so we could get to oggle, er, admire, er learn more French from our French French teacher.

The next year we had the Principle's wife; what a crone!

EDS? Employee oriented? Since when? Last I worked with them, they were every bit as capricious as EMC.

Carolyn Ann

Cerulean Bill said...

They really did used to be. I started working there about eight years after the company was founded, and it was still likely to run into Perot from time to time. They played up when they did something helpful or extraordinary, but they did do it, which was a nice feeling. Once the company was big enough to be sold to GM, a lot of that warmth disappeared, and by the time the company was independent again, it was pretty much infected with the GM virus - standards, auditors, and many, many layers of management.