Wednesday, November 06, 2013

A New Kind Of Mentoring


The inexperienced no nothing AP is mentoring the young teacher who has had enough of the classroom and wants to move on to a position in administration.  Here is a copy of the letter the AP wrote her to cement their relationship.

Dear Young One, 
I was once a newbie like you.  After only a few years I too decided I wanted to be an administrator.  I could not see myself standing in front of a classroom and dealing with problem students for the rest of my career. Tough kids make me cry and they scare me quite a bit.  Now I can assign those kids to the teachers I don't like and hide out in my office whenever there is a problem.  I make sure I program myself for classes that require no work and I have even dismissed classes early.  I am in charge.  Who is going to tell on me? Besides, I love giving orders to others, especially those older and who think they are wiser than me.
Don't worry about not knowing much about a subject you are in charge of.  Look at me.  I knew nothing when I began this job and still know next to nothing.  I never make a decision and pawn work off on others. When I don't have an answer, I stare and get nasty to all around.  I can teach you to do all this and more.  I can help you get bonuses.
Young one, know this.  While I am mentoring you, you will be my slave.  You will do everything I tell you to do, including cleaning my house and babysitting my child.  You will write my observations and order my supplies.  Never forget I own you.  But, when it is all over, you will be able to own someone else.
Life is good when you are young and beautiful and know a little about technology.  Knowledge about anything else is totally irrelevant.
Sincerely yours,
Know Nothing and Proud of it Administrator 

 

3 comments:

ChiTown Girl said...

For the love of God, please tell me you made this up!!

For the record, it made me laugh out loud.

Tom Forbes said...

As a former ATR or visiting teacher in almost 85 schools (I think),I saw this play out time and time again for real. I also worked under some pretty incompetent administrators, Leadership Academy people are known to be the bottom of the barrel. There are so many inept administrators who barely leave their offices and loading up the difficult classes for teachers they do not like is common practice.

Anonymous said...

ChiTown Girl…this is not made up!