Strategic Annoyances

There is a deeply troublesome element within the ranks of administration which interferes with the work of many educators.

Oftentimes, school leadership personnel band and bond in such ways as to develop or fall victim to the practice of blaming the teacher for countless school problems.

While the reality exists that many teachers fall short of meeting professional duties and responsibilities, especially in a failing school, careful and thorough investigation would undoubtedly uncover several truths.

Just ponder for a second the opening week of a school where no effort is made on the part of the principal to assemble students in groups and provide a year’s “prospectus” from the principal’s standpoint. This practice would stand the chance of serving several purposes:

First, it establishes order and regulation;

Second, it fortifies and empowers the roles of all educators in classrooms and elsewhere on the campus;

Third it delineates a unified range of goals, objectives, philosophies, expectations, etc,,,

Forth, it weeds out the would-be naysayers and defiant students whose behavior had gone unchecked in previous days in the very same school, or “calls out” those new-comers who may take the notion to set out to “prove themselves” amongst the undesirables in the building;

Fifth, it generates a perceived propensity among administration to act in an appropriate confrontational manner, clarifying the power structure and hierarchy thereof, when the need arises;

Sixth, it generates discussion amongst the student body, segment-by-segment, making way for and giving rise to student decision-making, concerning where each stands in the compliance continuum;

The establishment of a philosophy of the “United Front” among all “educators” is critical to the successful operation of the school, particularly the school in need of “reform,” Those staff members who raise questions in opposition of the administrative viewpoint must not be cast asunder or shunned, but instead entertained and respected for the forth righteousness and sincerity in raising those concerns.

Often, there is a concerted effort to render the dissenting voice an "enemy of the state." What sometimes facilitates this is the sentiment among staff that the individual is a “trouble-maker,” and in reality, creating more work for the rest of the staff.

It is not difficult to imagine how some of our worst aspects as individuals will carry over into our professional activities, thereby creating an environment conducive to pettiness and “shortcuts” which detract from their highest quality professional practices.

This often makes for holes in the “safety net” of programmatic consistency, the general work ethic, morale, and the spirit of going the extra mile to remedy ills found in a school in crisis.

When Cronies who lack the appropriate qualifications for jobs are hired, promoted, elevated, celebrated, catered to, etc., the pack mentality and return on favors often runs out of control, leaving instructional priorities at the curbside. Most often, more sooner than later, the holes in the “net” lead us to consider the notion that a “blanketing” approach may have been a more suitable method.

Let’s think back on the “opening day” or “opening week” of school and the administration’s role in setting the tone. There are times when the hard-line, lay down the law, read ‘em the riot act applies more-so to staff than to students. Particularly at a middle schools with such records of historic failure, it is paramount that the leadership reassure and support all staff in playing their roles…after first clarifying them.

How often do you think staff members are provided with job descriptions/responsibilities of all counterparts in the building? We have not yet seen it done, and only once heard it promised, after 30+ years in monitoring education!

In our school district, a stated mantra has been “we’re serious about learning,” noted by a logo containing a cardinal with eye glasses and a stack of books. Besides the potentially stereotypical suggestion (only/all eye glass wearers are smart, i.e. “nerds”), the fact remains the term serious must indeed be taken “SERIOUSLY!”

When a chief school administrator orders a reworking of all schedules to accommodate grouping of all middle school students according to only the most recent standardized test scores, how "serious" is that? If the school is in chaos and disarray behind the wait for the new schedules, with students in a temporary class schedule situation, how serious will they take it? Children, like grown folk, tend to lose faith in authority rather quickly, and very soon after, comes the rebellion phase.

It is known fact, especially amongst educators and parents…those who don’t turn a blind eye to the realities, that is. And again, more sooner than later, the walls come tumbling down, so to speak. And all the rationalizing and justifying and blaming and ignoring and shunning and retaliatory annoyances delivered unto the dissenting voice, in the world, will not a solid educational facility make.

So often, more later than sooner, administration (top level-on down) comes to the harsh and embarrassing realization that the “better mouse trap” thought to have been constructed was actually nothing more than another mandated initiative sent down devoid of collaborative ingenuity.

These types of orders come to be commonly perceived as "strategic annoyances" around which staff of course do not rally, but instead just play a “grin and bear it” act to get by-until grins become far too heavy baggage to bear.

For those who elect to speak up in the name of troubleshooting (not trouble-MAKING, as some would call it), the risk of being labeled “negative” is ever-present. This is, to me, a very juvenile method of divisive name-calling in order to mask so many programmatic and logistic deficiencies.

Much of what won’t even work “on paper” is propagated as a workable plan of action, but goes against the grain of common sense and tried-and-true practical teaching methods (and even child-rearing, for that matter). Too much of what befalls the educator in terms of obstacles and barriers to good teaching is not by chance nor is it incidental, but actually by design.

We believe the establishment and respect for the pecking order is of extreme importance in the minds of many administrators, at the forsaking of professional autonomy and creative freedom.

To be certain, without an epiphanous journey into a realm of true collaborative spirit, the school district would be doomed to failure.

One bottom-line consideration to be noted here is that "bullying" is bullying, no matter how you dress it up with pseudo-intellectual jargon, or candy coat it with all the sweet vocabulary in Webster's book, an attack is just that...an attack. Make no mistake about it. Teachers in Plainfield are feeling the effects of an "onslaught" against their professional liberties as well as their first amendment freedom of expression-collective and individual.

Parents are increasingly outraged by the bits and pieces of inpropriety they recieve in "dribs and drabs." And so the walls could be set to come tumbling down.

In this, the 21st century, we, those with conviction and purpose, "hold these truths to be self evident" that ALL educators are created equally...with the right to dignified treatment and not merely the freedom, but indeed the BLESSING from leadership, to just DO THEIR JOBS!!!

-WEAPON1