Dear George,
Out of respect to NYC Ed, I held back some of the things I would have liked to have said to you on his site, on mine, I have no such reservations.
You freely talk about the duties of the teachers to deal with all student discipline problems. If you would have read NYC Ed's story carefully, you would have seen that he did try to have the disruptive boy removed. Teachers are not allowed to send a child out of the room unaccompanied. It is as simple as that. And when he did get someone to remove the child, that kid was promptly returned to the auditorium. The teacher received no back up.
The administrator in charge of my department blames the teacher for everything that goes wrong. His answer to everything is "Raise your expectations." If a kid is absent, the teacher is responsible. If a kid puts his head down in class, the teacher is responsible. If two kids have a fight, blame the teacher. The administrators get performance bonuses at the end of the year and all people like you are pushing and pushing teachers harder and harder so you will get more money.
As far as walking a mile in your shoes, we don't want to be administrators. We are just as smart and probably smarter than most of you. The difference between us is that we like working with children. We like being in the classroom. We are not on the power trip that you guys are on. Years ago, administrators had to be exceptionally bright. They had to have total knowledge of every subject taught in their departments. That is no longer true. Every 20 something year old teacher in my school is taking administrative courses and thinking about becoming an administrator. One of these teachers is getting her internship credits by following my AP around and doing all his dirty work. If making copies qualifies you to be an administrator, she will be a pro. This wannabe administrator taught her class that if the answer to a fraction problem is 8/3 and they write 2 2/3 the answer is wrong. Another time, I quietly showed her a probability question she had taught incorrectly. She answered "well, that is the way I do it."
So George, I think it is time for you and all the administrators like you to stop bashing teachers and walk the mile in our shoes.
Sincerely,
PO teacher
10 comments:
AMEN!!!!
P.S. what a moron to say "well, that's the way I do it."
I get so sick of administrators dispensing advice and solutions for problems that would have been solved years ago if the answer was just that simple.
The DoE at my school sits up on her $90,000+ per year perch, then saunters down, breezes in and out of classrooms "observing" just about everyday and then has the nerve to critique what we're doing. Now the micromanaging nazi has informed us that she will be checking lessons plans whenever she walks in to make sure that we're following through. Ughhhh! It makes me want to holler sometimes!
Oh and another P.S.!
I like the mule picture and I'm happy that you haven't retired yet (i.e. "The rantings of a teacher who can retire but chooses not to"). We need more sane people like you, NYC Educator and all of the others that we link to in the system.
I'm not sure she is allowed to check lessons.
We had a teacher in our school who never wrote lessons. Years ago, the principal observed her and wanted to see the lesson. She ran out of the room, claiming she was sick and locked herself in the ladies lounge for an hour so she could write the lesson. He never hassled her again.
I particularly liked the part where George insinuated that perhaps the confrontation with the student (who was not even in NYC Ed's CLASS) could have been avoided if the teacher had developed a more positive relationship with the student, or some such tripe. Do they hand out some sort of manual that teaches them to parrot these lines?
There is an unfortunate pattern of people who wish to "escape" from the classroom going into administration. This desire is often borne of wishing to avoid kids.
I find, though, that people who don't do well with kids rarely have any more success with adults.
I truly believe that good administrators have spent many years in the classroom. There is an AP in my district who is 24. I know that many of the veteran teachers do not respect him because he doesn't have any experience.
However, experience isn't the answer. There is a younger teacher in my building going for his Administration degree and wants to have taught in every elementary grade level before becoming a principal. That's not bad thinking, but after working with him for a couple of years, I've come to the conclusion he will not be very good. Some have it, and some don't.
While I see where you are coming from (and thank god everyday that my Principal and VP are not this bad), I would like to shout out that not all 20-somthings are in it for the adminstration. I have no plans to do that, my life goal is to stay in the classroom and make a difference in children's lives (I hope, I can be niave sometimes). Bless you for dealing with the things you have to.
Nah, if they walked a mile in our shoes, they'd slog through some pretty stinky stuff (might even need hip boots)--and that's what they try to avoid by becoming administrators!
mathnerd--I'm glad there are people like you around. I spent the other night with a friend who happens to be an administrator. He said most of the young teachers in his school plan on leaving in a few years also. Even with a good administration, it is getting too hard to teach.
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