What Am I Getting Myself Into?!
D. Bowden

I have decided to substitute teach to have something constructive to do, and to make a little extra money, but I have to tell you that my teaching frustrations have started already and haven't even subbed for my first class yet! I took in all my bureacratic forms and "red tape" to the Will County Regional Offices of Education last week. I printed all the forms from the Internet and followed the directions given online. Well, apparently "procedures" have changed somewhat, and those procedures have not yet been updated on the website, and I was told that they no longer accept personal checks and I had to have a certified check or money order, though the regional fees could be a personal check. I drove all the way back to New Lenox, forfeiting the money I put in the parking meter (or so I thought), to get the money orders I needed from my bank. I drove all the way back to Joliet and luckily my meter was still open and unexpired. I walked back to the office building and downstairs where THREE ladies looked over all my paperwork, documentation, money orders, etc. They said all was in order. I asked specifically if the doctor's signature on the form was adequate for the health statement and they all said yes, it was fine. I asked if they were sure everything was there. Yes, fine...they would call me to set up an appointment for fingerprinting and my temporary certificate would arrive in a few days. I recieved my temporary certificate a few days later, however, cannot "activate" it until I have a DOCTORS STATEMENT OF GOOD HEALTH! WTF??? AND they had failed to give me two more forms that needed to be dated and signed! GRRRR!!! I filled those out and then have been trying to get ahold of my doctor all day long today to have him write this statement of health thing. My husband called me after a few hours of waiting and said maybe the ditzy ladies made a mistake and overlooked the doctor's other statement because how many statements of health does one need? I called the number that the ladies from the Department of Education attached to the two additional forms with a post-it. Some guy answers by saying "Rick here". I said, "This isn't the department of education?" and "Rick" says "nope." I dialed again using the area code seeing if maybe that would make a difference...got "Rick" again. I went online and looked up the department of education number again and rang up this Pam who had sent me the post-it note with the forms and request for doctor's statement. I asked her if they had by any chance overlooked my doctor's statement form that was signed by him last week. She pulled my file and came back to the phone and said "OHHHH...teeheeeheee...It's here already. We must have overlooked it! I am sorry...teeehheeeheeehheee!" She said to bring in the other two forms tomorrow and they will schedule my fingerprinting so I can start working next week. I am not so certain I want to get involved with the education system after being away from it for so many years now. I will give it a shot, but I better brace myself for stupidity to the max! It's like birth pains, one forgets what they are like after a lot of time passes.