Sometimes I Hate It...

When I'm right...


We'd had an easy to use, generic log on for years in our district.  It was simple enough for 5 years to remember and neatly solved the problem that Windows requires log ons.  Of course the high schoolers abused it and took advantage of the fact that it made the user "anonymous"  to  scatter inappropriate comments the width and breathe of cyberspace.  


So the old log on was abolished and in its place came a complicated 8 letter / 3 numbers combination.   I'm not sure who piloted it - I suspect it was a combination of high school students and the tech departments own uber tech savvy children.  It certainly wasn't piloted on monolingual Spanish speaking 5 year olds, even though we have many within the district.

Worst of all, it was to go into effect on the first first minute of the very first day of school.  No lead in time, no teaching time, no getting used to things time allowed.

Needless to say, this announcement resulted in great angst among the librarians since we're usually the ones who get to carry out the Tech departments proclamations (not that they ever ask for our input ).  We have great many new librarians who, unlike me who has been at it since dinosaurs roamed the earth, are very SERIOUS about their job. 


So I wrote the following e-mail:

Guys,

I realize I share much of Alfred E. Newman’s” What Me Worry” philosophy but I’m really not stressing about this right now.

I’ve been here  too long & have  seen too much and I already can foresee the scenario.

1.       It will start out as an unmitigated disaster

2.       Total chaos will ensue

3.       Tech Services will realize they messed up and back pedal furiously

4.       Plan B will be announced

5.       Plan B will be tweaked

6.       Plan C will be announced

7.       Plan C will be scrapped

8.       Plan D will be created using the best of plans A, B, C & D.

So, we can put in hours of time and mental stress worrying about dealing with Plan A but chances are it will all be for naught.

Me, I’m just going to roll with the punches, expect the worst and not be disappointed.

Last week, just I predicted we suddenly  found ourselves at Step 5.  Tech Services finally agreed that 5 year olds, who aren't sure of their last name and who can't type couldn't be expected to perfectly execute  a complicated log on.  So we have a new and simpler log on.  That doesn't work on the ibooks, all of which now must be re-imaged. 

I can't wait to see Plan C.  And sometimes I really hate it when I'm right.