Please Don't Dim the Lights.

Here is a picture from my classroom.

We have some electrical issues, so even though it was really nice of the people who built the school to put in dimmer switches, something funny happens if you dim.
It breaks the lights.
Really.
If you dim the lights EVEN ONE TIME, one or more bulbs will start flickering.
Sometimes they make a menacing buzzing sound.
No one has been able to fix or explain this phenomenon.
So, rather than keep wasting the time of the maintenance crew and wasting the money of the taxpayers of California, I duct-taped the lights so you can't dim them.
At first I used the old-fashioned duct tape.
Then I got the pretty kind, the kind that I wear as bracelets, because things that are useful as well as decorative are things I value highly.
People like dimming lights. It gives them a sense of control.
But when the lights you are dimming are the lights inside of people, that is wrong.
No one should try to control someone else's lights.
A lot of times people dim lights inadvertently, or because they think it's for someone else's good.
Like the parent who thinks taking art classes is stupid, because get that requirement out of the way and do something that "counts."
And I see how this kid, who can create things that make the angels weep, is really, really sad at registration and adds an extra science class.
Extra science classes are cool if they keep the lights on.
They are not cool if they dim the lights.
Or the counselor or teacher who tells a kid that she's "not college material."
What? WHAT?
My blood pressure goes up whenever I think about this, because I am thinking of a specific kid I had a long time ago who was, and is, one of the most singularly gifted human beings I have ever met, and an Adult in Authority said this to her.
It is a credit to this student that this reckless stupidity did not break her.
Dimmers are for light fixtures,not people.
I can duct-tape light switches.
I can't control stupid stuff that adults say.
I can try to fix the lights.
Wish me luck.