I wanted to take a break from my usual cynical storytelling — don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of that — and address a very serious concern: an ethical, and yes, existential question (despite how overused that word has become) about student grading. I work as a special education teacher in an urban public high school […]
T.S. Carney
T.S. Carney is a Special Education teacher who navigates the "quiet calibration" of the classroom and the faculty room with equal parts caffeine and cynicism. His work, which often explores the absurdity of systems, will appear in Your Impossible Voice 2/10/26, Maudlin House 2/11/26, Eunoia Review (March 2026), The Educator's Workroom (12/26/26), and has appeared in Maudlin House, Neon Origami, and The Good Men Project. He currently resides in the "infected zone" of his high school department, awaiting his next character witness summons for the International Court at The Hague.
Posted inInstruction & Curriculum
You Won the Race”: A health class euphemism, reimagined
I generally dislike teacher stories marketed as “based on a true story.” They’re always cleaned up, sanded down, and weaponized for sentimentality. So here’s something that actually happened on Friday: exactly as it happened, with no moral pre-installed. I teach special education English in an urban high school in the Northeast. First period. A self-contained […]
Posted inConfessions of a Teacher
I Thought Using Lysol Was Against the Hague Convention
It was Monday. As usual, we were sitting in the conference room. The room overlooked the football field. Kids hopped the fence and cut through the graveyard behind the school. I sipped my coffee and smirked. I wondered why a boy and a girl were going to the graveyard so early. Smoking? Vaping? Then the […]