NAUGHTY students have always been sent to the detention room – but where do naughty teachers go? To the rubber room.
A ‘rubber room’, or reassignment centre as it’s officially called, is a place where New York teachers await disciplinary hearings - spending days, weeks or even years passing time while collecting a full salary, protected from being fired by the teachers’ union. In mid-2010, The New York Times reported there were 550 teachers in rubber rooms, costing the city $30 million a year. Soon after the city announced all rubber rooms would be closed.
Wellington writer Uther Dean’s play, think of all the fun you’ll find in the rubber room, explores the dark psychology of disgraced, isolated and dead-bored teachers.
Actor Paul Waggott plays Sam.
“When you first mention it to people they think, ‘that sounds quite nice doesn’t it?’ But imagine weeks of it. [Rubber rooms] were created because it was so difficult to get someone through the disciplinary process. It feels like a sort of purgatory; it’s the darkest side of beauracracy,” he says.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the term ‘rubber room’ references the padded cell of a psychiatric ward.
Actress Hannah Banks, who plays Sophie, understands the comparison.
“There are stories all over the internet of teachers going a little bit crazy. As you would, being stuck in a tiny room with nothing to do all day.”
Not all those in the rubber room deserved to be there.
“Sometimes they shouldn’t have been allowed to continue teaching, but other times people ended up there for no good reason other than corruption in the system,” says Waggot.
Cases have been discovered where teachers were sent to rubber rooms for whistleblowing on principals faking test scores.
Waggot: “Even when they got it right the system was messed up, there was one guy earning $100,000 a year to sit in a rubber room.
“The whole idea is horrifying. There’s a big difference between not having to do anything and having nothing to do.”
Think of all the fun you’ll find in the rubber room, BATS Theatre, 8pm, February 8-19.