Dear teachers: pupils are here to learn, not to run your errands

Let’s say that the printer in your classroom is out of ink. Do you:

1. Use the specially-designed “quick request” system on the school Intranet to request a new one. Time taken: 30s.
2. Because it’s super urgent (and you never pay attention when you’re shown the 3 mouse clicks it takes to use the request system), call the IT office directly to ask for a new cartridge. Time taken: 30s.
3. Send 2 pupils out of your class to walk over to the IT office (without even checking if the office is staffed) to relay an incomplete request for a new cartridge, while you sit at your desk marking work from another class. Pupil time taken: 4-5 minutes (x2) minimum.

If you picked option 3, you are a turd bag. You have deliberately squandered pupil learning time simply because your 30s is apparently too important to deal with an issue that prevents your entire class from finishing their assignment. Instead, you’ve chosen to rob two unwitting pupils of around 15% of their lesson time. The problem you need fixing takes longer to fix, and those pupils are now at a disadvantage compared to the rest of the class.

How exactly can this be justified?

STOP IT.