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While teaching in the public schools is not an easy job, is it so bad that teachers need to fake their sick days and take up other jobs? It was discovered that Dorrit Matson, a teacher at a Chelsea high school, had been falsely calling sick days when she was actually leading an orchestra! And the school's principal found out because he was listening to public radio and the broadcast said she was conducting the Scandia Orchestra! That's a sorta dooce, isn't it? Matson suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome, which is apparently blamed on a strained relationship with school administrators, and while she's been on unpaid leave since earlier this year (at her request), Matson has conducted twice. Matson's argument is that since she's away from the environment causing her CFS, then she is able to conduct! This is definitely a classier second job that former social studies teacher Matthew Kaye's wrestling gig, but the fact that Kaye had his mom or sister call the school saying he was sick while he was really on the road takes the cake. The Board of Education is investigating whether or not Matson should repay the school for the fake sick days and they are "seeking her termination."
And this makes Gothamist think of the Very Special Golden Girls episode where Dorothy finds out she has CFS - at first none of the doctors believe her, but then an Asian doctor confirms she has CFS and Sophia says, "I love your people! You created pasta!" or something like that. Also, did you know that Don Cheadle starred in the Golden Girls spin-off, Golden Palace?
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So what, this is like Mr. Holland's Opus in reverse?
What she did was WRONG, but I can tell you that teaching takes a LOT out of you. It screws with your immune system and exhausts you.
My typical day was--walk/subway ride/walk to high school in the Bronx, carting a 20 lb. backpack of graded journals the whole way, teaching five classes in three different classrooms, running around from meeting to meeting, grabbing a 5 minute lunch while standing at the computer checking my email, staying after 2:30 for three hours grading work, prepping lessons for the next day and making photocopies on the one xerox machine. Then home again, carting a pile of stuff that won't get graded because I will pass out in my clothes after eating a bowl of cereal. Then waking up at 6:30 to do it all again the next day.
I know, I know, poor me...and it does get easier now that I'm in my third year of teaching...and we do it because we love it...but sometimes it's just draining, physically and spiritually. I do sympathize with this teacher's desire to get away from the source of her stress...but it also seems to me that she should just stop teaching, because this pattern of behavior just points to the fact that she's burning out.
Boo-freakin-hoo. Try working construction.
That she is not already fired is a true sign of the problem with the teacher's union.
CFS is an excuse 90% of the time and (IMHO)is a real red flag. What little I have seen of the condition/desease/whatever you want to call it, is that it is permanent, it doesnt turn on or off depending on one's temporary circumstances.
CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) is actually not as vague and nebulous a condition as some would think. I personally was diagnosed with it a few years back and laughed a bit. But it is real. Thank you dot-com boom and unhealthy life patterns!
The reality is that you run your body down to the point in which you basically are very susceptible to diseases such as mononucleosis and such. And in the case of mono, the reason you're fatigued is because your liver is basically damaged by the virus and you just naturally become sleepy.
Mono is not the only cause, but it's the most common version. Once you take care of yourself and allow the body heals--and the mono goes away--you're back to normal.
In this case, the CFS really sounds like a load of hooey. Nobody who truly has CFS simply 'bounces back' after a few days in a different environment.
That said, why is this shocking? NYC Board of Ed... Ooppps... 'Dept. of Ed' staff have notoriously ripped off the system. Not all of them. But it's been happening for years.
This is definitely a classier second job than former social studies teacher Matthew Kaye's wrestling gig
Classier, yes, but probably not as fun as former phys ed teacher Jeffrey Dion Bruton's, um, moonlighting gig, shall we say.