Teachers in Maine don’t understand the Internets
In the little town of Raymond, Maine, some elementary students have been challenged to go 21 days without complaining. According to MaineToday.com, the idea for the challenge originated in 2006 with a pastor in Kansas City, Missiouri. Wanting to encourage the habit of gratitude in his congregation, the Rev. Will Bowen asked them to go without complaining for 21 days. Neat!
So this morning we dialed up the school for a radio interview. We thought it would be a warm ‘n’ fuzzy to talk to the teacher of the students.
Wrong.
Here’s how it went down when I got the teacher on the phone:
Me: “Hi, I’m with a radio station in Illinois and we read an article about your class going 21 days without complaining. Would you interested in going on-air with us to talk about it?”
Her: (Dead silence for 5 seconds.) “Um, I don’t think so. I wasn’t real happy with the article and I’m a little shy about talking to more media.”
Me: “Really? The article was great.”
Her: “Where did you say you were from?”
Me: “Champaign, Illinois.”
Her: “I don’t understand how you heard about this.”
Me: “Uh, we read an article on the Internet.”
Her: “I don’t think I’m interested. Besides, how do I know you are who you say you are?”
Me: ”Well, I could give your our website address and you could email me from there and I could reply to that email.”
Her: ”I’m a little leary right now, so I don’t think so.”
Filed under: Foolishness
Sign her up for the challenge to go 21 days without paranoia! Too funny.
i love the part about not understanding how you heard about their story. doof.
No complaining for 21 days? I’m sure I could find a loophole: “I’m not complaining. I’m just *commenting* about [how long it's taking for my food to arrive/what an idiot that driver is/the fungus that's taking over my front yard] etc. etc.
Too funny, though.
I used to live in Maine, and I’m with the teacher. Maine’s economy is collapsing, schools are under intense pressure to restructure and close (when some kids are already on buses for an hour EACH WAY to small-town schools - and Internet in the schools is no given), some schools can’t afford to be HEATED (one of the coldest, snowiest winters on record in the face of doubled and tripled prices for all sources of fuel) - and for the Press Herald to run a “no complaining” story when the circumstances in the schools are calling for fighting in the streets is condescending to the max.