Thursday, June 01, 2006

A Day in the Old West


Ah, yes.. So, today was our annual field trip to Knott's Berry Farm. They have a neat program where they provide docents for school kids and take them through some of the historical reproductions associated with the Gold Rush and Westward Movement. It's a day my students look forward to all year.

Our docent, let's call him D, made our day extra special. I had D as a docent several years ago so I knew what we were in for. After the last tour with D I had written a note to the program director commenting on some of D's inappropriate behaviors, so I was hopeful that he'd toned it down since then. Let's just say that D is flamboyent, a really nice guy, but he has no "filter". When you work with children, you have to have a filter - you can't just say anything...

D's first inappropriate action was to show us a picture on his cell phone (yeah, they had those in the Old West) of Richard Simmons and himself - he referred to it as his wedding picture. Turns out he knows Richard well... Okay, so then we hear all about his gastric bypass surgery and how he's tried to get on Extreme Makeover, Dr. Phil, and Oprah to have them pay for his next surgery, which is required to remove his extra skin. He tells us it's a $50k surgery. I swear he was fishing for donations! He has some dubious Hollywood "connections" so he name drops shamelessly all day long.

He tells the students that he has a myspace.com page and that they should "check it out"! Hello, do you watch the news, mister? Myspace.com isn't exactly appropriate for fourth graders!

I spent most of the day just shaking my head at his inability to accurately judge the group of people he was relating to. These are children! Install your filter!

9 Comments:

  • At 6:47 PM, Blogger Paulette said…

    He sounds more like he should be in one of my Special Ed classes. A filter or a piece of duck tape might be a better option He could just point insted. Some people just don’t understand children’s vulnerability.

    So we are in a race to see who's state comes in first with the I-171H Nevada or California. I hope we have the same LID our chances of meeting in China are getting better every day.

     
  • At 6:47 PM, Blogger Shannon said…

    Oh, how awful!! Usually when our 5th graders go to Jamestown/Williamsburg I am embarrassed by *their* behavior and have to apologize to the docent! This is a turnaround!! Quite the freak, actually!
    PS Did you have any boysenberry ice cream?! Yum!

     
  • At 8:26 PM, Blogger Jenny said…

    Oh that is awful. UGH! But, didja eat chicken?? ; )

     
  • At 8:37 PM, Blogger Joannah said…

    For the record, no boysenberry anythings were consumed, nor was any fried chicken. I will say that I caught a few whiffs of Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinners, and I was drooling over the fragrence. I don't even want to know how many points a Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner is worth - probably two days worth of points!

     
  • At 9:48 PM, Blogger AprilMay said…

    Many parents don't realize how DANGEROUS field trips can be! All those unfiltered adults/signs/billboards/CONDOM DISPENSERS IN THE BOYS' BATHROOM...

    And sometimes, the chaperones themselves are unfiltered!

     
  • At 6:34 AM, Blogger Kristin said…

    omg!! lovely! well, i guess there is a reason he is a docent at knott's berry farm... um, dork!

    btw, i wanted to email you (but YOU HAVE NO EMAIL on your profile page) and thank you for the wonderful compliment you left in my comments section! i think about taking some of this a step further, but then i think about my many grammatical errors and i shudder!

     
  • At 9:41 AM, Blogger Puddin' said…

    Oh wow. Sounds like "D" needs another letter written to Knott's Berry Farms!

    My daughter is a 4th grader and I can just imagine the stories she would tell me after spending a day listening to that man! Niiiice.

     
  • At 3:18 PM, Blogger Ava Baby said…

    Sounds like "D" has some issues and unfortunately, he's more than willing to share them with anyone who listens.

     
  • At 6:15 AM, Blogger Sandra said…

    Oh my - how does someone like that get to stay employed in a public position? And around kids nonetheless?

    Also, I wanted to thank you for all the kind comments you leave on my blog! You are very sweet!

     

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