the spiraling abyss of the human soul

Thoughts that proved I'm going to hell:

1. Upon hearing about a pedophilic rabbi: "Well I guess it's not just for Catholics anymore."
2. Ethiopian food: and oxymoron?

I went to an Ethiopian restaurant last night with Elizabeth. I actually liked it quite a bit. Everything is served on a big platter lined with spongy flat bread and they give you more spongy flat bread with which to eat the meats and sauces. One of the dishes was fairly spicy so I got an Ethiopian beer to wash it down. The beer was fine, though nothing special.

Yesterday at the end of school, two children (we'll call them "Peter" and "Wendy") wanted to read the same book. Wendy had it first, but Peter tried to take it from her hands. She held on tight and it ripped. They were both very upset and Peter wouldn't accept that it was an accident or that we need to use words instead of grabbing things, so he had to sit out to think about it. Wendy banished herself to the other side of the room and cried. I talked to her and calmed her down and told her it wasn't her fault, that those things happen and that the other teacher and I weren't mad. Then Peter would yell, "You ripped it!" and she started crying again. The other JK teacher ("Morah Jane") came back and also tried talking to them with the same results. Meanwhile, the mother of the third child still in the class ("Belle") came in to pick her up. We just explained they were having a little spat over a book and Belle wasn't involved. As Morah Jane was talking to Wendy, Wendy's dad came in to pick her up. Wendy told her dad why she was upset, so Wendy's dad went over to Peter and said to him quite seriously, "Be careful or Wendy will get her brothers to come and beat you up." The room went silent. Morah Jane and Belle's mom and I looked at eachother and since no one else responded I turned back to Wendy's dad and Peter and said, "No, we're going to work this out using our words."
Morah Jane went to find the head of the school ("Lilly") to talk to Wendy's dad and Wendy and her dad went to get Wendy's brothers from first grade. I was saying bye to Belle and her mom when we spotted Peter's mom. Belle's mom immediately told her what Wendy's dad had said, and Peter's mom was livid. She was ranting about how inappropriate it was (which it was) and I tried to explain exactly what happened and pulled her into the classroom where Peter was still pouting.
At this time Lilly was on the phone long-distance with her ex-husband discussing their former family friend, a rabbi, who was to be on Dateline after being caught in an internet pedophilia sting. They had stayed at his house when their children (now around my age) were little. This was when Morah Jane went in and told Lilly she was needed immediately.
Peter's mom confronted Wendy's dad about what was said to her child and apparently did an excellent job, simply stating that the issue isn't whether or not Peter did something wrong, but that it is NEVER appropriate to threaten a 4-year-old with a beating from a pair of 7-year-olds.
Lilly walked Wendy's dad to his car with him trying to defend his words the whole way. He said he was teaching his kids to stand up for themselves, that Wendy knew if anybody bothered her she was supposed to tell her brothers and that they knew to beat up the botherer. That's how it works in the "real world," and that the school is a total vacuum.
This last piece may be true, but there is a huge difference between being assertive and being aggressive. Threatening a 4-year-old over a ripped book is absurd.
After the dust cleared and all the parents and other teachers were gone, Lilly, Morah Jane and I talked in the parking lot. Lilly said that the incident was actually a total blessing. Apparently, other parents had frequently come to her about Wendy's dad's behavior and parenting at birthday parties and in the parking lot and such, but since it was always either with his own kids or away from school, Lilly had no real right to tell him what he was doing was wrong. But now that he said something in a classroom, in front of other kids and parents and teachers, to a child that wasn't even his own, Lilly can finally have a sit-down and talk with them about his shitty fucked-up parenting.
Morah Jane, who has been a teacher for about six years and even worked in inner-city public schools, was shocked that "people like that" actually exist. I'm more shocked that she hasn't encountered them before.