“A Teacher’s Bad Dream”
I’m at work and I’ve walked across to an alternative English/History staffroom. Within are two teachers engaged in professional discussion. They’re planning an exam, discussing using a question for one part that has worked well in the past. They can apparently purchase the question from some professional organization. It surprises me that I know nothing about this organization and it makes me feel that I need to improve in regards to knowing where to obtain resources.

Note: This is an area I’m aware of that could actually improve in waking reality. I tend to be self-sufficient in tracking down and creating resources and this is extremely taxing on my time. These women also represent the type of people at work that can namedrop and know all the “stars” of our profession. I’m not good at that at all.

Now they acknowledge me. The dominant one is diminutive with shoulder length dark brown hair. It’s hard to estimate her age, she feels younger than me in the dream but the person she looks most like in WR is slightly older than I am. There’s a sense that she knows the ropes and has been at the school a long time. The other is blond, tall, slightly heavy and with a moderately clumsy feel to her.

Notes: The first reminds me of the mother of one of our son’s friends. She is a basketball mum and when our eldest played she was very much in charge of running the local comp and refereeing the games. My husband and various parents on the team couldn’t stand her, considering her something of a zealot when it came to the rules and regulations. I didn’t think she was that bad. The other woman reminds me of a clumsy version of Vicki, a football mum and the receptionist at the local chiropractor.

The brunette begins to address me. She hasn’t met me before but she tells me she had one of my history classes after me. She announces that they thoroughly preferred her, complaining about my teaching and lack of classroom control. I’m stunned by her frankness and begin to berate her, calling her rude. Her friend supports her insensitivity and walks beside me as I head back to the staffroom, attempting to justify it.

Note: Competitiveness is rife in teaching and students will often inadvertently feed it by complaining about their former teachers. Teachers do get reputations and I’m used to enjoying a very good one but when I began at my current workplace I did encounter the History class from hell – the worst behaved and most hateful kids I’d taught anywhere. Being a newcomer is a challenge in itself, so this was unfortunate timing. They left their mark on my psyche. They certainly left their mark on the collective psyche of the teaching staff.

I ignore her but I’m considering some kind of retaliation. There’s the thought of unleashing a psychic attack but I’m resisting it, knowing it’s not a mature or wise response. There’s a real sense the intensity of my emotion is such that the impact of such an attack would be dramatic. I’m aware that if I send it, I’ll see it as a storm.

Notes: Before bed I read a medium’s blog where she described being attacked psychically. I’m teetering on lucidity here in the sense that I’m aware that emotions can manifest physically in this dream environment.

I reach my usual staffroom and tell a few colleagues why I’m incensed. A couple of them begin to bitch about these teachers from another staffroom. Their support is appreciated but I’m not interested in the things they say to degrade the other women, who were clearly hardworking and competent teachers.

Note: There is one friend in particular at work that bitches about other staff members. She’s been there a long time and holds old grudges. The description above is how I often regard her bitching: I appreciate that she’s supporting me or someone else but I always feel she takes it too far, demeaning the entire person instead of simply disapproving a singular act.

It seems like the characters in this dream are shadow aspects: the conceited/competitive/insensitive one, she who defends the indefensible and those who are quick to judge and condemn.

“The boss’ dance”
My eldest son sits on a lounge before a television watching “The X Factor.” I come and stand behind him to see what he’s watching. Suddenly the boss is there and does a funny little dance in order to be amusing. This is meant to be for my amusement in order to imply we’re hip, fun-loving people.
Note: This is about the way I perceive my boss’ self-perception. F would never watch “X Factor” IRL. I imagine it’s a comment on his stage of life: a study in what it takes to be successful. Maybe that’s a self-fragment at work too.