You may have already noticed that I'm not your lollipops and sunshine kind of girl. Recently I have endured a spate of attempting – quite purposefully – to be more... well... 'happy' I guess is the right word. I decided to endeavour to constantly see the positive – in people, in situations, in my life as a whole. And this exercise was certainly useful. I discovered I have far more choices than I thought were available to me. I learnt that I am in the right profession – for the moment anyway – and if I want a change there are options. I took up weekly exercising with two friends to try the whole 'healthy body, healthy mind' shtick. My husband and I enrolled our eldest in a different school for the upcoming academic year rather than leaving him in a place that I know in my heart of hearts is no longer the right place for him. I have a workman coming over this afternoon to give us a quotation on converting our never-used garage into a kid-zone so hubby and I can have more peace. I am not caught or stuck. My life is, to a large extent, what I make of it.
However, at base, I am not a positive, silver lining in every cloud chick. I am sarcastic, cynical and it takes me a while to trust anyone. I do envy those women who have that magic charisma, the ones who everyone loves, most often born out of them being nice to everyone. I am not nice. I'm not mean (most of the time), but I don't think anyone would ever describe me as 'nice'. The one attribute I have always thought I possessed however, is tolerance. I consider myself to be quite a tolerant individual – in part thanks to my own children and in part thanks to the students I have taught over the years. I have taught sixteen year old convicted rapists, believing that everyone makes poor choices at some point in their life and we all deserve a second chance. I have friends who still drive around in a car with 'Kevin 07' stickers plastered across the back and those who are actually considering voting for Abbott. Having a younger son who is now officially 'on the spectrum' has made me amazingly tolerant of personal ticks. My husband is, at this very moment, donating sperm in an effort to impregnate his lesbian sister's partner, with my blessings. So on the whole, I consider myself a pretty tolerant human being.
That being said, there is one thing that I have zero tolerance for – stupidity. No matter how hard I try I simply can't abide it. Stupidity is not making a mistake – we all do that. Stupidity is continuing to make the same mistake over and over and over and over again.
Let me tell you the story about a principal of a very small school – a school desperate to build numbers. And let me tell you about her reaction to the current President of the Parents Association when she asked said principal if it was possible to give parents seven days notice for any upcoming events in which their children were performing so parents could endeavour to be there. This request came as the result of multiple occasions in which parents were notified the night before of a student performance the following morning. This was not a new problem. This was an issue that had been discussed many times over recent years. Said principal did not respond to an email requesting this. She did however respond in 37 minutes to an email from this same woman informing the school that her eldest son would not be returning to the school in 2011. When the woman approached her personally the principal blamed everyone else – it was this person, that person, the situation, the way it was handled by others, she had no choice, blah, blah blah. In the end the parent was forced to walk away saying, "Forget it. It doesn't really matter." This woman said this because she realised it didn't matter what she said and how many times she said it – the fact is this principal is an idiot. She is an idiot for not valuing her parent body as a whole, but playing favourites to an elite few. She is an idiot for making it abundantly clear why she is such a poor leader – good leaders don't blame their underlings, they inspire those working for them to do better next time. She is an idiot for crystallising for this woman why she is pulling her eldest son out of the school and making her wonder why she is keeping the other two in.
Do I wish I was able to be more tolerant of the many morons who litter our world? Certainly. But I told you, I'm just not that nice.
