In recent years the school has grown and the cleaners’ hours have been cut. They’re not working at full
capacity as nobody wants to take such a disgusting job and they’re about half a dozen cleaners down. Cleaners
come and cleaners go, very rapidly in a lot of cases. Or they stay and find solidarity in their thankless jobs
for decades. All except one cleaner we have, who puts in mind a snarling little dog who pretty much snaps at
your ankles when you walk past. All the cleaners shout to each other along corridors and between classrooms,
but she saves her shouts for when a teacher (i.e. me) is walking past, and then says very loudly to whichever
other cleaner is in the vicinity that the teachers are all lazy bastards who can’t control the children and
evidently encourage them to drop litter and scuff their muddy shoes everywhere just to make her life a misery.
I’m paraphrasing here slightly, but you catch my drift.
She also makes sure that if I have to escape that part of corridor, usually with piles of papers or boxes of books in my hand (meaning that I can’t really see where I’m going), that she doesn’t stop mopping so that I may pass, but instead slops the dirty mop as close to my feet as she can. Or her piece de resistance is to be sweeping the stairs when I descend, and aim just right to sweep off all the crud onto my head as I pass underneath. I don’t think I’m being paranoid here either.
I personally would like to see the buggers in detention on cleaning duty instead, as well as all those
underachieving in their lessons. I wouldn’t want to denigrate the job of cleaner in doing so, and I see that
this might be an argument against this idea, but if it’s good enough for young offenders on community service,
then it should be good enough for school too. Write on the desks? Spend lunchtime cleaning them all. Chew gum
when you know it’s banned? Another lunchtime picking it off desks and walls. Throw or drop litter? Pick it up.
Write on the displays or pull out the drawing pins? Tidy up my classroom. It’s not the kind of thing the
governing body agrees to though. Shame.
added 12/3/06
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