On Monday, January 30, Government and Economics Teacher Eric Wisotsky received his spring schedule, and much to his dismay had a number of difficult students.
“I haven’t had a schedule this bad since my first year at Stuyvesant,” Wisotsky said. “I have friends who have had some of these students, and I am going to do all I can to transfer out.”
This schedule comes as a shock to Wisotsky who has generally had students that he considers easy, nice and reasonable. “Normally when I give students homework, they do it neatly and keep it nice and short and easy to grade,” Wisotsky said. “But my good friend and colleague Mr. Trainor had [senior] Kevin Jung in his Economics class last semester. Apparently his homeworks took fifty to sixty minutes to grade. I don’t want to have to deal with that in my government class, especially in the spring semester.”
Wisotsky also has many students with thick foreign accents that make it difficult for him to understand what they are saying, especially while grading their final presentations. “How am I supposed to give them a high grade,” Wisotsky said. “If I can’t even understand what they are saying?”
In an attempt to alleviate some of the stress from his schedule, Wisotsky convinced fellow government teacher Daniel Tillman to trade his 3rd period class for Wisotsky’s 9th. “I have heard great things about Tillman’s 3rd period class,” Wisotsky said. “These are the type of students that really make teaching a breeze.”
Tillman, who owed Wisotsky a favor for having him grade some of his longer tests last semester, was hesitant to take on the infamous 9th period class. “It will be tough to deal with those terrible students, but I think I’m up for the challenge.”
The two were all ready for the exchange, until they were stopped at the programming office for not having the required signatures to transfer classes. “We get requests like this all the time,” school programming officer Sofia Liang said. “Teachers just don’t seem to understand that you can’t transfer classes just because you don’t like the students. You need the signatures of your department’s AP and a valid reason.”
Assistant Principal Social Studies Jennifer Suri was not quick to approve the switch either. “There is a long wait list of teachers who would love to take on Tillman’s 3rd period class, I can’t just give it away to Wisotsky because they are friends. There is an order for this sort of thing.” Suri only approved the switch after Wisotsky brought in a doctor’s not saying that he has a disorder that caused difficult foreign accents to give him migraines.
“I am happy that the bureaucracy finally worked in my favor,” Wisotsky said. “Now if I could only transfer out of cafeteria duty, and move my 10th period class to 6th, I would have the perfect schedule.”