From the amazingly affecting blog of a first year teacher in NYC (in this episode the school system hadn’t managed to pay her yet).

“Allegedly, I’ll be getting an “emergency” check on Tuesday (Monday is Yom Kippur and the schools are closed), but I’m living through this three day weekend on the “State Quarters” that I’ve been saving since I applied to be a Teaching Fellow last October. At the grocery store this morning, the man behind me in line wanted to know if I’d been to Atlantic City, since I was paying from a paper cup full of quarters. I had saved those quarters to use for teaching; I didn’t spend a single one that came into my hands in 10 months. Good thing, too, I guess. After making sure that I saved two of each in the holders I have (a map and a folder), I had a bit more than $20 which will hold me through the weekend and get me to work on Tuesday.”

Start at the beginning or start with the latest but do read it. It will be interesting to see how long she can keep it up before the institutions around her find a reason to shut her down.

Note: I deleted this posting from 2002 by mistake; spam! So I’ve reposted it. I apparently don’t understand the “edit timestamp” feature in Word Press; so it looks brand new.