This is about a person in a society with robots who is trying to get a job and compete with them. He wants to prove that there is more to teaching than giving orders and yelling at children.
The day had come. The day for the interview. This day would probably be one of the biggest days of his life. John had been waiting for this opportunity since he had decided that he wanted to pursue becoming a teacher. John woke up that day feeling great. He felt like getting there a little early, maybe to impress the people that were going to hire him. As he thought of that he got out of bed and started to get ready and brush his teeth.
John made his usual breakfast which consisted of eggs, bacon, bagel and a cup of coffee. John chugged down his coffee, finished up his breakfast and headed through the door. He said hi to his nearby neighbors who were starting to file out through the door, to head to work. They all looked a little drowsy because they did not like to work.They had to work 9-5 jobs that didn't even pay very well. John set that topic in his mind for a later day or a different time. John located his car and proceeded to get in.
On his way to the interview he wondered what the school board room looked like. In his previous job he got fired because he was not as efficient as the other employees. He hoped that they all would be a little more normal. He thought maybe this would be a little more normal because they were looking for a replacement teacher. He found his way around traffic and got there at about 8:10, five minutes before the meeting started. He parked his car and got out. Once he looked up he saw that the building was about 20 stories high. It was massive for a place that was looking for a new teacher, and that might even be the school. He looked at his phone and the job listing to see what floor it was on. To his surprise he saw that it was on the 20th floor. He walked in the building and saw that everyone there was a robot. This made him really sad. His definition of teaching young children was connecting with them and using the emotions that you have. The robots did not feel anything they really didn't care about. They just repeated instructions over and over again.
He made his way eagerly over to the elevator and realized there was a huge and long line. He walked to the front where he realized that a lot of robots came to apply for this job. When he tried to walk into the elevator, a massive robot came and shoved him and said “Watch where you're going, back of the line.” John did as he was told and went to the back of the line as the entire line of robots stared at him wondering what they should say. They didn't stand up for him, laugh at him, shove him around; they just stared. After standing in line for about three hours he finally got into the elevator. He watched as the device at the top of the elevator became larger as the elevator got higher up.
The line at the top was even bigger. John sat down and waited for the line to get shorter, slowly inching his way towards the meeting room. When he was the next person to get into the meeting room he tightened his shirt, dusted off his pants and got in line. He noticed that the robot just walked out of there looking very dull. He couldn’t tell what happened. This is what he hated the most: the ambiguity.
When it was his turn he walked into the meeting. To his surprise there were no humans in that room. Once the robots saw him they asked why he’d applied for the job. Humans could not even do a millionth of what the robots could do. John replied that he had emotions and he could really connect with the children that he was teaching. The robots were interested in what he had to say and they gave him a trial period where he would serve as the teacher's assistant for a week. John was so excited to get to know everyone and possibly take on one of these careers. The robots also asked him to tell everyone else to go home.
John walked all the way to his car wondering about everything he could possibly do at his new job. Once he drove all the way home, he just laid down on his bed and went to sleep. He woke up the next day at about 5:00 in the morning. He made his breakfast and his coffee and ate slowly. He sat there for 45 minutes. The time was about 7:00. The job started at about 8:00 so he got in the car and drove slowly towards the building.
After he got there he walked in and went to the designated floor. He saw that there were robot teachers and human children there. Once the class started he introduced himself to the class and did what he was told. He had not really been able to interact with the children the first day.
Once it was lunchtime, the children filed out to go to lunch. When he opened his lunch bag and sat down at one of the tables, the other robot teachers walked into their room. They all sat at their spot around John but one robot was not sitting down. The robot proceeded to pick John up and drop him on the ground.
John then realized the robots did not know what to do; they were only doing as they were programmed. This made him feel like they did not want him here, maybe the person who programmed the robots made it so that the robots didn’t like him.
The rest of the day went by. The robot teacher only needed him to get print outs and computers. During his way to the printer one day he saw a child crying outside of the classroom. When he went to ask the child why he was crying the child thought he was a robot and ran away. This made John feel even more strongly about becoming a teacher. After the school day was over he walked over to his car, and he noticed that the children around were really sad and they really hated coming to school everyday.
John went to bed that night thinking about how the robots looked like they did not want the job that they were doing. He knew that he was wrong and that they were programmed with no emotions. He woke up the next day feeling tired. He had not slept very much last night. He did his usual routine. His day passed while not much happened. When the teacher asked to go get print outs for the class John went to the copier machine. When he got in line to get the printouts, the robots just cut him; they didn't even notice that he was there. This made John feel outraged. The robot or human that programmed them told them not to think about humans. Maybe even John in general.
The week blew by quickly. The last day in which John had his trial job he received an email saying the next Saturday the people on the top floor would like to have a meeting with him. John went to sleep really nervous. Maybe the robots wouldn't give him the job and he would have to work a job he didn't enjoy, like his neighbors. That night John did not get any sleep. He woke up the next day at 7:30. He looked at the clock and jumped out of bed. He quickly threw some stuff together and ate breakfast. He ran out of the door and drove really fast towards the office building. He made it five minutes before the meeting started. He went to the elevator like normal and went up to the 20th floor. Inside of the meeting room on the 20th floor, he saw the robots waiting for him. He walked in and said hello to them. They didn't acknowledge him. They immediately said they wanted to give him the job. John was over the moon. He was so excited to finally get a job that he really enjoyed. After that they said something that put John down a little bit. They told him that he was too slow and that the robot teacher’s would finish the job faster but that they would give him one more chance.
On his way to the copy machine the next day, he saw that same child crying. He ran back and pulled out his phone. He put it inside of his shirt pocket so that the phone could record what the child was doing. He walked up to the child and asked him why he was crying and the child jumped back. John said that everything was ok and preceded to ask again. The child gestured for John to follow, and began walking to the 5th grade classroom. When John looked he saw a robot teacher yelling at one of the students because he got a problem wrong. “I HAVE REPEATED THE TASK MANY TIMES, YET YOU STILL FAIL TO GET THE PROBLEM RIGHT’. The robot proceeded to flip the child’s desk so all of the child's belongings spilled out onto the floor. As John watched the student inside the classroom pick up his things, the child he was with said that the robot teachers were being ruthless and they weren't doing their job properly.
Once he finished the conversation he walked up to the top floor to show the video to the head of the school board while thinking about a plan to trick the robots into believing that he had this information somewhere else. John walked into the room, and the robots asked him why he was there. He answered saying that he heard about robots mistreating the children by yelling at them, and resorting to violent matters. The robots reacted by saying that they programmed all of the robots to be a little harsh so that they could test them and to make them stronger. As he proceeded to show them the video on his phone he told them that the violent matter was way too much for any human. They took his phone and told him that he was fired and to get out. John proceeded to make up a story about if they fired him or hurt him he had a friend at the local newspaper that was going to blow it up to the news. The robots then asked what he wanted from them. John said that he wanted all of the robot teachers to get fired and replaced by real teachers. The robots agreed and they proceeded to fire all of the teachers. They let all of the children go home early. The school posted a job listing on the internet saying that only humans can apply.
The next week when John went to school he saw that there were no more robots in the building, but people. This proceeded to make John really happy.
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