It happened.  I finally became that which I feared.  I am finally the Paul Gleason character from The Breakfast Club. Some of you may not know the name {aul gleason, but I'll bet you know the Paul Gleason game.  He is the character actore who embodied institutional jackassery for most of the 1980s.  His name is Legion, bur he also had a few other names like "Mr. Beaks" in Trading  Places, that jackass cop from Die Hard , and ,of course, ol' Dick from The Breakfast Club.  The thing is I love Paul Gleason as an actor he belongs in that small part of character actor heaven reserved fro Brad Dourif, Lee Ving, Tom Atkins , and Al Meong.  He's probably a bit more accomplished than some of those guys, but he is still one of the actors who makes me clap my hands in glee whenever I see a film with him in it.  (Incidentally, the habit is very annoying to most people I learned.) 

 Gleaon was the most unctous WASP-y jerk ever.  If you looked for a definition of douche bag in the sictionary, you wouldn't find his name, but you would have probably been looking for a word to sum up his charactersization.  I loved him, but I certainly didn't want to be him.

However, here  I sit in my classroom with students paying for crimes against humanity such as talking back to a teacher or excessive tardies.  Yes, I am the Commandant of Saturday School.  That hallowed institution where students come and sit for four or five hours and read or draw pictures of the teacher supervising them or have dirty, dirty thoughts.  Most of the kids in here are kids that i like, and they are kids who seem to o the right thing most of the time.  They just slip up on our rules, or they have human moments that cause them to react to situtations in much the same way I might. 

They are quietly sitting and I am quietly padding my paycheck.  I didn't accept the assignment because I like to instrumental in the punishment of students.  In fact, I rarely have a discipline issue.  I 'm here because in a matter of months my family of three will become a family of five.  I'm also here becauseI am not a martinet.  I am not going to bully or berate them, and, honestly, there are too many of my collegues who do just that. 

So, here I sit.