The Rubber Room

So there’s this documentary being produced about the rubber room. the rubber room isn't really a rubber room..... its more like a conference room... but it’s the place where teachers go when they are accused of any kind of impropriety. so in this room these teachers sit for months and sometimes years and do NOTHING. they bring books, laptops and whatever to occupy their time. but they sit their... collecting their paycheck.

The Rubber Room documentary

Now I’m not quite sure how i feel about all that, because on the one hand, you can't hurl an accusation at a professional and take away their livelihood... but at the same time its such a waste and not even money. (actually, the amount is relatively little compared to the total budget of NYC schools... but as Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner quote Peter Sandman in their book Freakonomics, it is the 'outrage factor.' He says, “Risks that you control are much less a source of outrage than risks that are out of your control.” The rubber room and its “waste” of $25 million per year has people outraged because it is DEFINITELY out of their control and it seems like its so much, when in essence its less than 1% of the total budget - actually it is .25% - ONE QUARTER of a percent of the annual operating budget.

Oh, and might one of those teachers interviewed be one of my co-workers. Yes indeedy.

And the krumping kid in the beginning of the trailer... a former student.