Sometimes I wonder just why I am the one to be put in such ridiculous situations. I have a feeling because I won't keep my mouth shut in said situations. I will say what needs to be said, and make sure that the next person doesn't have to deal with the same issues I had to.
Last night was one of those situations.
I went to my CNA class without really knowing what to expect. I signed in, got my packet of supplies, and books and sat in the very back...my favorite place to sit in any class.
The class consisted of 10 other students, mostly women, one guy. The teacher came in and started right off with telling us "a bit about herself". She said she got started 38 years ago as a CNA "just like you". "Only, I had just had an illegitimate daughter...you know what illegitimate means don't you?, It means I was an awful person...I had a daughter without being married...so that made me an awful person...they charged me more for car insurance...I didn't have a job...and after the second time of her being in the hospital for dehydration-the nurses asked me what I was going to do with my life-and that's when I decided to be a CNA. So then I moved to the big city with me and my illegitimate child and got a job at a hospital, and met a man and got married, had another child who was disabled, then had another child and when that baby was 6 months old I got a divorce. So I was on my own and had my oldest daughter, and my youngest child, and I couldn't handle my 5 year old disabled child any more so I had to give her to foster care. That's when I got my LPN and have been working in nursing homes ever since. ".
**--BLINK--BLINK--**
Yeah...that was the first ten minutes of class.
She went on to tell us about the "Moslim Man" she had to work with..."You know about the Moslims...they don't like women...that's why I left and started my own school" This is when I choked on the drink I was taking. She mentioned to one of the young ladies in the class that she didn't need a man in her life, she would do fine as a single mom, and once she got this training she wouldn't need to worry about paying rent because she could afford a good apartment, that's what she did. "Even though we had to sit around on the floor like Chinamen, it was still fun.", oh yeah, this student...she was Asian.
Once we got past the introductions, she started into the packet information. Where she told us that if you have a felony or were crazy you would never get to be a nurse. (Really...because woman you are C-R-A-Z-Y!!) She also told us that she didn't want any "crazies" in her class, and if anyone had a mental illness to just "take your medicine-I don't want to deal with any crazies"...then she got off on a story about the nursing home that takes care of "the crazies" how they were the worst of the worst. But also the most fun to take care of, because "they won't remember you from one day to the next anyway.".
She told us about the Rehab hospital here...about how it's the best in the nation, but "I wouldn't work there...I can't stand seeing 16 year old kids in wheelchairs, knowing they'll never walk again.".
Oh my gosh...it was awful...this is just a peppering of her ignorant remarks, she gave horrific story after horrific story about the local nursing homes, and how "it's my job to teach you how to deal with all of their behavioral issues, about how they'll lay down in front of the door, but you just have to step right over them, because they are acting like children looking for attention.".
But the kicker for me was when she pointed out "all you moms with special needs kids, when we go to clinicals, (meaning going for the 8 hour days in the nursing homes), don't be talking about your special needs kids and all their disabilities...or how sick they are...or that they're dying...nobody wants to hear that.".
That was towards the end of the class. I gathered my things at the end and barely got to my car before I started crying. What an awful human. The head of this school that puts out the workers that go and care for those who can't care for themselves. I was sick.
And before you ask why I didn't get up after the first racial slur, I had no idea what the implications were for me leaving. If this was the only class I could take for this program, or if I could go to another school. So I sat through the first class. And called first thing this morning to the agency who sent me there.
Thankfully, they were absolutely supportive of me. And said they would get me into any other school I wanted. I chose another one, and will be starting March 9th. It's a bit further from our house, but hopefully it will be better. The agency also said they aren't going to use that school any more, and they will offer the other mothers in the class to take another class somewhere else.
So...that was my fiasco of a class. It made me sick...and mad...and cry. I still believe I only had to go there in order to blow my siren about it. And I am more hopeful about the other class.
