R.I.F. Season

March means one thing to obsessive gardeners: the great gear up for spring! Time to dust off those reference books, purchase any supplies you may need, and get your gardening gloves, hand trowel, and seed packets ready. Spring planting is just around the corner.

As a tenth year educator in the Long Beach Unified School District, however, March has come to mean something else: layoff notices. Yep, that's right... the big R.I.F. is back in town, second year running.

If you have the luxury of not being familiar with the acronym R.I.F., allow me to enlighten you. It stands for Reduction In Force, as in (and I quote), "...the Governing Board has directed that notice be given to you that your services will not be required for the ensuing 2011-2012 school year." End quote.

"The reasons are as follows," it continues. Blah blah blah blah blah blah.

The fine print really doesn't matter. What it boils down to is that there is hardly any money flowing into our public school system, and too much flowing out. Sacramento needs to balance its budget on the backs of our teachers and against the futures of our children. Because it's really okay, you see, for our governments to run trillions of dollars in debt, but heaven forbid we finance the salary of one great educator.

Am I getting too political for you? If I've made you uncomfortable, I apologize. Pocket Square Farm is not supposed to be a vehicle for political commentary, but the teacher in me (and the mother of two children just beginning their careers in the Long Beach school system) just can't help herself. It's all I can think about right now.

So here's my attempt to turn R.I.F. season around. I am officially re-defining this acronym.

Until either my notice is rescinded or the last nail is hammered in the coffin that is my career, the letters R.I.F. will hereby stand for "Reemergence Into Farming."

I have been down and out of the garden for the last month, instead working toward my GATE certification, completing my professional portfolio, and preparing my students for the 4th grade state writing test. (You may have noticed the stark lack of posts to this blog. I have been a little busy.)

But whatever will be will be, so instead of staying angry I will go back to my other passion: organic farming. I will grab my shovel, dig deep into the earth, and cultivate the small patch of soil that absolutely belongs to me.

I may not be able to plant the seeds of change that are so desperately needed for educational reform in the U.S., but by God I can plant some green beans and watch them grow!