Next was the lady in the third seat on the bus driver's side. She sat up nice and straight so everyone could see her, and looked around while saying with a deep voice, "My name is Cindy, and I teach 2^nd grade at a little school in the Bronx."

        As she talked she nodded her head up and down, as to make a point of stressing certain words like little and Bronx. "I have always wanted to be a teacher, not because of the great amounts of money we get paid, or because of those smiling faces you see on Monday morning, but because I thought it would be an easy job. Think about it, all you have to do is sit there, and assign ten pages from each textbook. However, what I didn't realized was that I would have to deal with these little children whining constantly. Some expect you to tie their shoes and do their hair, my response would always be, 'I'm not your mommy, I'm just a teacher that’s paid to sit here and make you shut up!' I am trying to teach them what the real world is like, you know, get them prepared for life! If I did everything they wanted, and was sweet to them, when they have to go out on their own they would freak. Some parents disagree with my methods and have come and complained to the principal, and I usually have about three or four students switching out of my class after the first month, but the ones that stay with me really do get something out of the class. They learn life is tough and they need to get over it! They have their textbooks to read, and if they don't understand and bother me with silly questions, I make them do extra work to find the answers. I have tried to explain to the parents how I wanted to run the classroom, and how the students would have an advantage over the other students. One parent proceeded to tell me that I was the one that had the advantage by not teaching and just making money, but I just blew her off. After all, everything I do is to the advantage of all the students in my classroom.

        "My biggest pet peeve is when you have little children that are sick. Like when there’s that kid, who won't stop coughing, I mean when that happens all I can do is send him to the principle for disrupting class. During allergy season I sometimes have only four or five children in my class! The principal finally came to me and said, 'You can't be sending kids to the office for disrupting class when they have a cold!' Oh, he was mad at me that day, but I tried to stay calm and replied, 'Well, I can't have them in my class coughing up a lung when I'm trying to teach.' So we argued back and forth for a little while, and finally he said that he had talked to a school in Washington that needs teachers badly, and so here I am, on my way to Washington to meet another bunch of rotten little children."

        When she was done, she looked around as if to see the faces of strangers starring back at her, not really caring, so she laid down and slept for the rest of the ride.