The Faculty Lounge Quotes

“There was so much about their jobs that could not be explained well, especially to those who had never worked in a school. It often felt like trying to describe some strange supernatural phenomenon, some bizarre thing outside the laws of nature.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“When faced with a teacher who wept over anything lower than a 5 on a particularly stupid category, Ms. Baker always wanted to shake them and say, “Look, it’s not like anyone is going to get a raise out of this!”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“Teacher trainings and district-led meetings were often run this way, with an approach that treated the adults as if they were children, not professionals. Ms. Jackson had sometimes wondered if hedge fund managers and attorneys sat around in meetings being asked to draw a colorful picture that represented the group’s consensus or to post clarifying follow-up questions on a piece of chart paper labeled “parking lot” so that these things could be considered later. It was demeaning, and Ms. Jackson prided herself on never treating her colleagues in such a manner.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“...Principal Kendricks smiled in that enigmatic way he had that made it clear that he was simultaneously fulfilling a district-mandated obligation and acknowledging that it was utter bullshit.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“The English teachers loved to pick apart the principal’s frequent, wordy missives; after all, Principal Kendricks had taught geometry before heading into administration.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“Being longtime veterans, the three were easily able to fill their chart with appropriate, vacuous nonsense that would appease Ms. Harper, even as they joked about darker, unwritten content. It was how they managed to survive such moments.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“No one is ever really ready for the first day... So the best you can do is show up and hang on.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“That there were more books in the world than he would ever have time to read was equal parts comforting and troubling.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“What’s that old saying? When I go, I hope it’s during professional development because the transition to death would feel so seamless?”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“It was the most punk rock moment of his life.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“he’d been lucky enough to be born into a generation of men who were not as threatened by funny women as their fathers and grandfathers had been.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“the two young teachers possessed a preternatural calm that came only from growing up aware that at any moment they might be shot dead at school.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“Things had changed, and not for the better. This job now felt less like an art form and more like a factory line.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“Would she suggest to a young, bright-eyed college student that she should go into public education? On her worst and hardest days, probably not. Things had changed, and not for the better. This job now felt less like an art form and more like a factory line.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“We cannot control other people or their behavior. We can only try to do the next right thing.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“Because the truth was that, in many ways, it did. It needed people like Luz. It depended on them to clean their buildings and tend to their babies and fix their homes. It did not want to extend to them their full humanity—that was clear. But as long as she didn’t open her mouth, ask for too much, or rock the boat, she could stay. As long as she could agree to exist only in a certain way. Like, half a person.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“Despite the rhetoric of the country’s previous president, despite the bigoted messaging and the red caps and the cries for a wall, within her first few months in America she had come to truly understand the extent to which people like her kept the wheels turning in this country, generating a constant hum just under the surface, operating from a place a person could simply choose not to see.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“TDAF (which stood for Teacher Development and Feedback but was often referred to as Total Drivel and Foolishness or Totally Dumb as Fuck) was the time-consuming, utterly pointless, state-mandated system of rating teachers, wrapped in ribbons of red tape and consisting of three conferences and four observations over the course of a school year, each observation requiring the assistant principal to rank their teachers on a scale of 1 to 5 on everything from Dresses in a professional manner to Establishes a supportive culture of warmth where learning is the focus and all students can achieve.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“fan of sushi, mystery novels, and long, solo walks.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“Oh, God, not markers and chart paper," grumbled Mr. Fitzsimmons as he sat down at one of the tables. "Please, God, anything but that.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“It did not want to extend to them their full humanity—that was clear. But as long as she didn’t open her mouth, ask for too much, or rock the boat, she could stay. As long as she could agree to exist only in a certain way. Like, half a person.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge

“not be explained well, especially to those who had never worked in a school. It often felt like trying to describe some strange supernatural phenomenon, some bizarre thing outside the laws of nature.”
― Jennifer Mathieu, The Faculty Lounge