Working Nine to Five Just to Stay Alive

Perhaps that is the most true lyric in Beyonce's new album. It applies to capitalistic life, to the notions which dominate our lifestyles and the ways in which we go about our days.

If we do not collectively waste away ourselves for the betting of our economy, then we are overlooked. Other than in a dating situation, we all are like fish in the sea. And there are plenty of us. Except, we are like a school of fish. It not rare for a fish to fall behind and hide in an anemone, away from the school, yet that fish will not survive to their potential on their own, or at least they assume so. If one does not follow the capitalist way in a capitalist state, they are expected to fall behind, and that they will in contrast of the possibilities. If you think about it, working nine to five is not the worst case scenario in someone's life. A worst case scenario would be that of working nine pm to five am, at a gentleman's club, as a woman.

It is one thing to walk in high heels for long hours, the feeling of which I will never know but that I always will know about, and it is another to have to wear them as you are performing an activity over a long period of time. That is not all strippers wear, though. Although they wear the least amount of clothing, they wear a burden on their face which is heavier than most burdens carried. This may not be the case, as this piece is heavily based on general assumptions but one finds it difficult to think otherwise and the grounds on which I base these assumptions are realistic enough to be believable.

I will not delve into this case any deeper than I already have because I am aware that people have to do various things to survive, and that is where my argument turns towards, the things some people do in order to continue flowing through a capitalist economy. Had there been no strippers, there would be less lawyers having to separate women from desperate men or vice versa seeing as heterosexuality is no longer the only accepted form of sexual desire, and alcohol sales which work to reduce the attendee's nerves would plummet.

That is not to say that I condone the availability of strippers, nor that I condone what all non-monogamous people crave - it is to say that working nine to five is detrimental to one in all cases. Working for hours longer than nine to five generally ensures that once the worker is finished, they are finished for the day. Nine to five jobs, on the other hand, have the tendency to be time consuming after they are allegedly over for the day. Take teaching, for example. I am only a teacher in training and now I never get headspace.

Teaching is rewarding though. I suppose then I shall conclude with if the nine to five job is honestly worth it, and worthy of the hours spent before and after those hours, not taking into account the pay, then I am happy to have to stay alive in that manner.

Late

Yes. Late is something I always am, lately, but not to things that are due or appointments that I have made, rather late to things I have promised, such as delivering an essay a day.

I see my current lifestyle as problematic because it does not quite encompass who I want to be, entirely. I have no time to express myself creatively unless I am able to produce a powerpoint presentation, whereI fully do express myself and receive a whole lot of gratitude towards my effort in my powerpoint presentations from peers that I otherwise would never have spoken to in my entire life. That is quite beneficial, yes, but I still am not fulfilling myself entirely yet. 

I suppose tutoring people also takes a toll on me. I am getting money for giving parts of my intellect, filtered intellect actually because younger children fail to understand most of my vocabulary, and I sit there waiting for them to finish a simple task, a simple writing task or mathematical equation and they take their time sharpening their pencils or blowing their noses or refilling their plastic bottles of water and it all drains away their parents' money and I sit there wondering whether teaching really amounts to something or whether some students just want a leading figure in their lives, one that is not either one of their parents, and I think that there is the problem - I am getting paid to be a guardian.

Being a guardian has its price, though. Now the children I tutor all are too dependent on me, and I hardly put in any effort, or maybe I do and I do not recognize it as much as they do. But, what I am beginning to realise is that the schools they attend, two, one higher class and one lower class, are failing to meet their needs to the extent where I am hired to help them meet them. This should not be the case. Rather than chasing the curriculum, schools should also take the time to assist all of those children who are falling behind. Teachers, after all, are getting paid to do so. What about integration aides? This whole teaching thing is a joke. 

Last year at one of my placement schools, a young girl had a speech difficulty and the government gave her a test to do and she apparently scored 'more than average' so they would not give her school the extra funds to support her. Regardless, the integration aide had helped her out a little, and left on numerous occasions when she would get too frustrated to even bother understanding what to do with her. I could not bear to witness this, so then I took over and I boosted her creativity with a few words and a lot of smiles, and soon enough this girl began to write like never before.

Similarly, another girl who spoke no word of English was struggling because she was left in the classroom whilst waiting for an ESL school to accept her. She would literally just sit there as everyone spoke a different language. The teacher would give her books to read and things to write but she would not do either because she was not capable. I decided to use the Vietnamese girl next to her to translate things I said to her and things she said back to me, and soon enough we began communicating with pictures, and it worked. She would await another mini lesson from me every time that I had placement, and soon enough she began reciting words of her own in English just by looking at the pictures.

I have also come across autistic children who performed better with my aid than the teacher's or the integration aide's. Some teachers no longer put in that extra effort, though I am not so sure that they ever did. It pays off, not financially, but spiritually, to help a child who really needs it. Maybe the education world would be a better place if this were the case.