Some silences never need to be filled. Really. For the past two days the sounds of silence in my world have been disrupted by the shittiest of conversations and I am SO fed up with it.

I'm taking a handful of graduate courses this summer in education for licensure. They're intensive classes, from 8-4, so you're basically stuck with the same people for seven hours (thank GOD for lunch). I was actually looking forward to this. I thought it would allow me to meet interesting teachers and pick their brains. It was also a chance for me to be on the other end of the stick for while (the teacher becomes the student). But from the moment the course started I've been wanting to do nothing but poke someone in the eye with my pen.

All the "students" are full-time teachers. Adults. Years of teaching in the system. And for the first time I can actually see WHY kids want to drop out of school. These people are the most uninteresting individuals I've met in my entire life. No one has any kind of substance or even sense. I can't understand how a teacher, with years of experience, with a Masters degree, can't even follow the thread of a conversation. Are these the actual people raising NYC kids???? God help us all. One teacher keeps saying "ax" all the time ("I axed my student if he did his homework"...AX is my pet peeve. I cringe when I hear "ax"). Another teacher says "analys" when she means to say "analysis". And the professor herself keeps saying "statics" for "statistics". The conversations are bland and no one seems to be able to answer questions. They speak, believe you me, but it's as if they didn't understand the question. I sit in shock at these people who lack comprehension skills yet are the ones who are supposed to be imparting this skill to our youth.

Anyway, after we came back from lunch today we were sitting at our table. It was silent. None of us were talking. So the two women next to me started talking shop. Is there really no other way for people to relate to each other?? I swear, if I hear one more story about how awful your principal is or how little Johnny cursed you out I'm just going to die. Talk about the fucking weather!!! Stop repeating yourselves like this. I have heard the same stories repeated VERBATIM for the past two days. And the only reason they're talking to each other is because they're so uncomfortable with the silence. It's not a big deal to sit in silence.

Silence is golden. I should tattoo that on my forehead for tomorrow.