10th
"Inhuman"
This is the word one of my Pakistani friends used to describe conditions in my classroom this week. Outside, it’s 95 degrees F. Inside, it’s about the same, if not hotter. I teach on the fourth floor of my building, in a room that faces the afternoon sun. There is no air conditioning. There are no fans of any kind. The air is stifling, suffocating. The humidity is the coup de gras.
My students are barely functioning. I nearly fainted several times yesterday. And through all of this, I have to give final exams.
It’s even more painful when I describe these conditions to my Argentinian husband and Pakistani friends — these are two areas which do not necessarily have the ‘conveniences of the first world’ AND are arguably much more miserable in the summertime. And yet, they are shocked and appalled to hear there is nothing to fight the heat in the classroom except for keeping the lights off, pulling down the shades, and running to the water fountain as often as possible.
To quote my husband, “What kind of first world is this???”