Category Archives: Teachers

Let’s Mind Our Business 

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Let’s Mind Our Business

Educators, it appears that everyone minds our business. Lately, we cannot tell who is watching our store. Our business is teaching and learning, but currently, many people with no education experience want to be the subject matter experts. Politicians, parents, organizations, and strangers on the street want to tell us how to teach,/ what to teach, when and where to do it. Can we do our jobs please without so much interference from the non-educators? We want to mind our business!

We want to mind our business of teaching and learning. Our role is to make informed and intelligent decisions about instructional strategies and practices to achieve various outcomes with and for students in our classrooms. A teacher’s role is to decide how best to support their students’ learning in the environments in which they teach. Teachers do so competently, thoughtfully, and with appropriate caution when considering their values and those of their students and others within the school community.

The Pandemic and Disrupters

Two years of a global pandemic is hopefully on its way out. However, the pandemic changes inflicted on our school systems raised more questions than answers. Lately, a slew of roadblocks is negatively harming many educators. The pandemic also gave people a bird’s eye view of inequities of funding, resources, and more. The restrictions of COVID also gave too many disrupters time to think about crazy reform ideas, laws, and political initiatives that are sending educators for the door. The disrupters want to mind our business instead of letting us do our jobs confidently.

The disrupters are creating laws like the Education Matters bill, SB 167, that was introduced in Indiana State. “The bill proposed schools would have to post curriculum online, hold meetings for community members to decide school curriculum and give parents the option to opt-in or out of certain educational lessons they may feel uncomfortable with their kids learning.”  The bill did not pass and teachers were avidly opposed to it.

Banning Books

School librarians are fighting against the effort of banning books. In the New York Times article, Book Ban Efforts Spread Across the U.S., the authors state that “ Parents, activists, school board officials and lawmakers around the country are challenging books at a pace not seen in decades. The American Library Association said in a preliminary report that it received an “unprecedented” 330 reports of book challenges, each of which can include multiple books, last fall.”

In the same article, Britten Follett, the chief executive of content at Follett School Solutions, says, “It’s being driven by legislation, it’s being driven by politicians aligning with one side or the other. Educators, everyone is minding our business and threatening arrest or loss of one’s career. And in the end, the librarian, teacher or educator is getting caught in the middle.” 

Teachers are the experts. We got this!

Critical Race Theory

Critical Race Theory is another giant political bomb thrown at educators. The topic has caused significant discussions, arguments, and upheavals lately. What is Critical Race Theory? The many politicians and parents fighting so hard against CRT probably cannot define it. Even though Critical Race Theory is not taught in elementary or high schools, the disrupters are convinced otherwise. Educators have to teach more critical thinking and problem-solving skills moving forward! According to Edweek,  “Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that race is a social construct and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.”  People should research reputable sources, reflect, and critically think before going nuclear over an issue. 

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Blurring the Lines

According to the article, The Politics of Post Pandemic Education, “the pandemic is blurring the partisan and racial cleavages around public education and creating new coalitions that could remain powerful players in local education politics. These coalitions are making it more difficult for teaching and learning to take place. Next, they are helping to create a mass exodus of teachers and making it difficult to attract people to the profession. We want to teach! That is our business! At stake is the fate of our public education system itself.”

We all know that education is prone to political influence and interference. Education is a necessity in our society. Educating our students should be a social experience, not a political one. Politics are activities that promote specific interests or authority. We see the federal, state, and local politicians jumping on the particular bandwagon and pushing their agenda. We’re seeing school board members recalled over mask mandates and Covid and safety protocols. Unfortunately, schools and classrooms do not operate in separate silos. 

Politics Influences Education

When politicians, agencies, and organizations use their platforms to make decisions that affect teaching and learning, we, the educators, must respond. We must mind our business so that others don’t tell us how to do our jobs. Politics already influence these areas: financing, curriculum design, development, and evaluation and assessments. Don’t forget about teacher unions because they are political organizations, too. 

Teachers and school administrators, our say matters when decisions affect us daily. As subject matter experts, someone should ask us what we think is best for schools, students, and the field of education! We are in the trenches every day and keep our hands and minds on the pulse of what goes on in classrooms. We should be the influencers, not politics.

Control Our Narrative

When we recognize our power and are a political force, things will change. Education and teachers have a public relations problem! We want respect as professionals. Everyone knows our role and wants to dictate what we can and cannot do. Some special interests groups want to instill fear in us by threatening our livelihoods or careers. Do not be afraid to do what’s suitable for our schools and children. Let’s control our narrative! It’s time to mind our business of educating our children.

RESOURCES

The Politics of the Pandemic

The Politics of Post-Pandemic Education

Black Voices: Does education matter or is this just politics?

https://www.idsnews.com/article/2022/01/black-voices-does-education-matter-or-is-this-just-politics

What is Critical Race Theory and Why is it Under Attack

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05 
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The Task of the Educators

Task of the Educators

“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts.” by C.S. Lewis.

Samuel Durr writes this guest post. He was given the quote by C.S. Lewis to interpret and give his perspective. Durr is a special education teacher who has been teaching in Chicago for 15 years. He has authored one published book, a few novels, and a barrage of short stories.

The phrase, irrigate deserts, is interesting in this famous C.S Lewis quote. The author probably means educators should encourage enthusiasm and curiosity, which is a good rule. Still, for me, the desert imagery has a different, probably unintended, possible tangential, effect. Since I carry my own associations and personal experience like an over-stuffed backpack, I will write about what questions it raises for me. Is education, are classrooms, are students, deserts? A desert is a resourceless, brutal environment where nothing flourishes, and everything has protective spines and spikes.   

Education is a Desert

The quote by C.S. Lewis offers an interesting perspective about the task of the modern educator.

In short. Yes. Education has become a desert. The need for a sea change is obvious to just about everyone. Recently, five large schools in Baltimore, Maryland, four of which were high schools, were found not to have a single student reading at grade level. Is Baltimore a city of fools? No, and so it’s clear that something is wrong, and I can’t help but wonder if maybe general education has become too available. 

The hard truth is that when anything is generalized, in fact mandatory, it becomes worthless and sometimes even loathed. Ask any teacher tasked to hand out free breakfast. Proportionally, far more of it ends up in the trash than in the mouths of those it intended to help. Students even complain about free breakfast as they drop it into the can. In other words, I’m not so sure we have a problem with how we educate.

Force to Educate

 Maybe, we have an issue with who we force to educate? If a family honestly doesn’t want to send their kid to school, why should they, and why do some schools have to take every student? This is a little ridiculous under a microscope. It has turned many public schools, unfortunately, into minimum security prisons.

Luckily, I have a solution. Picture, for a moment, if public schools could be more selective about which students they take? Just slightly. I’ve worked at four different schools over my fifteen-year career, and I can say without flinching each would have benefitted profoundly from booting ten kids, almost all for severe behavioral reasons. It’s easy to get all squirmy about the idea of leaving children behind. 

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Good Intentions

Still, perhaps it should be considered that despite good intentions and hard work, no teacher, counselor, priest, or coach can right the worst of the worst. Isn’t that nature? Some of the brood doesn’t make it for reasons beyond the control. With enough concentration, or maybe delusion, it’s possible to imagine an unnatural world in which every child becomes successful, but in such a world, the bar for success would be significantly raised. And if it were, we would still have students who didn’t “make it.” 

The point is that prioritizing students based on their sociability or intelligence is not evil, it’s realistic. It’s time to fully consider that organizing institutions around rotten principals leave us with rotten schools. Ten students, out of five hundred, give or take, isn’t very many but would change the overall tone. Similarly, imagine if a school had the ability to boot a kid because of parent harassment? Only in the most extreme cases, of course, but if schools simply had the authority, however weak, imagine the change. 

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Education as a Status Symbol

Consider also, if the government didn’t take money out of taxes to pay for public education but instead invited parents to pay out of pocket? If education became a status symbol, as it is to many parents already, they would be willing to spend money to send their children to better schools, and they wouldn’t trash their neighborhood schools and teachers. Competition can be healthy if it’s refereed. 

Problematic Institution

There are shining lights in every classroom, even in the worst public schools: brilliant students, self-sacrificing teachers, thought-provoking lessons, and dedicated staff. I don’t want to degrade education. There are many positives, and some of the best humans we have are teachers. Still, this institution has far too many problems, and the positives of change are worthy of the risks. It’s sad to say, anyone who’s been in a public school lately can attest to the lack of resources, brutal environment, ineffective teaching, poor social behavior, disorganized, stupid factories they have become. The point is, we can do much, much better. C.S. Lewis uses the term desert, and it works, it’s effective, but I wish it weren’t. 

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Power in Principals

Principals Have Power: Perception vs. Reality 

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Do Principals Have Power?

Reading recent social media posts in education groups, I noticed a trend. Many teachers and staff were blasting their school administrators. While complaining about one’s boss isn’t unusual, people were going pretty hard against their principals. Not negating anyone’s experience, some complaints were disturbing because, as a former principal, I know it is a tough job. Also, there is an ingrained idea that principals have too much control. I hear people say,  “Principals have power to…”  Really?  Now, let’s take a look at principals’ power and what are perceptions of reality.

Some people are already mad after reading the first paragraph! Let me be clear that this is not an anti-teacher post. Instead, it clarifies what is real and perceived about the power principals actually have in real life. It is a pro-educator post!  Both teachers and school administrators have extremely exhausting jobs. Add in a pandemic, and the job became much more complex and more stressful. When things become more difficult and stressful, it’s easy to lash out or blame each other for the troubles that neither have control over. So first, teachers express dissatisfaction with principals. Then principals grumble about district administrators or superintendents. They then complain about school boards and politicians who have never worked in a school. It is a vicious cycle.

Principals are Unsupportive

Some complaints that I read about principals and sometimes assistant principals are about being unsupportive. I often ask, what is your definition of unsupportive? What does it mean to an individual teacher? Being unsupportive can be defined as the principal does not discipline an unruly or disrespectful student that the teacher finds acceptable. Another teacher may think the principal does not support him or her during a meeting with an angry parent. Some staff members can be displeased with a new administrator for making changes to long-standing traditions or rules in the school. These are just a few examples of being unsupportive. Indeed, there are many more, and the list can continue to grow.

Micromanagement and Busy Work

“My principal is a micromanager or gives us too many directives or busy work.” I read these types of posts many times, especially during the pandemic. Some despised the daily checklists and safety precautions during the pandemic. But on the other hand, teachers’ workloads were too heavy, and expectations were high. Many decisions about these two things and others probably did not come directly from the principal but from the district office. 

Some say, “Principals need to stand up for your teachers!” Perhaps your administrator stood up for the teachers and got shot down by the superintendent. Also, maybe he or she didn’t give you all of the checklists that the district required to save you from having one more task.

Harassment and Abuse

Another item I read on social media posts is about principals who harass, bully, or verbally abuse staff members. I never condone anyone who does mental, emotional, or physical damage to their workers. If it is happening to you, report it to the union or district. Document all events or times when the harassment or abuse took place. As a former principal, I experienced harassment and bullying from a supervisor. It was not pretty and not worth my health. Eventually, the supervisor left the district, but the damage was done to me and many others.

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Principal Responsibilities

Another perception is that principals have unyielding power. The reality is that they don’t have it, and there is not an “S’” on their chests. While many teachers and school administrators are superheroes in the lives of children, we all are just human. Principals put their pants on like everyone else, one leg at a time. However, people have their own ideas of what school leadership looks like or should be in their school buildings.

The reality is that principals have a long list of responsibilities, too. Here is a list of some things they are responsible for handling on a day-to-day or year-to-year basis.

  • Being an instructional leader
  • Observing and evaluating teachers and staff
  • Hiring teachers and staff
  • Spending the budget (not creating it)
  • Scheduling
  • Safety of all students and staff
  • School-wide communication
  • Professional development
  • Day-to-day operations
  • Student Outcomes
  • Meeting with parents, teachers, students, community members, district administrators, school partners
  • Discipline
  • Fundraising
  • Implementing all federal, state, and district mandates and directives
  • All aspects of school planning

The Job is Overwhelming

Many principals will tell me that I missed some items on the list. The job is overwhelming and then adds a pandemic, too. Hours are late and long. It’s a lonely job, but somebody has to do it. 

Despite the long list above, principals must develop and build upon the policies, procedures, and relationships in a supportive and conducive to the culture of their school building. Principals do have the power to create a supportive and healthy environment within their schools. However, they also need the buy-in of teachers and staff. 

Sometimes, the perception is that principals have power and they are the bad guy. The reality is that they are not the evil villains in the story of education. This post will anger some people, but that’s life. Agree to disagree and continue scrolling! Those who believe they can be a better principal and do a better job go for it. Be the change agent!

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Lead with Empathy and Grace

Principals are often told to lead with grace and empathy but aren’t necessarily on the receiving end of either. Shouldn’t some things be reciprocal? For example, administrators are advised to celebrate teachers throughout the year and not just during Teacher Appreciation Week. How many teachers actually know the date of Principal Appreciation Day?

Frequently, I see social media posts of principals showing how they celebrated or thanked teachers for doing great jobs and being supportive. Reciprocity is suitable for everyone. Celebrate each other when good and great things happen. Principals have the power and teachers also. The blame game cannot be one-sided. We all have an essential job to do every day. Sometimes it feels like it is a no-win and thankless situation. Yet, we cannot continue to be divided. 

Let’s Use Our Power Together

Teachers and Principals Have Power
Together principals and teachers have the power to make positive change in schools.

Let’s Use Our Power Together

We have a unique opportunity to change or re-imagine education. During the pandemic, our way of teaching students changed very quickly. Now we all have the power to take the pieces that worked well, fix the gaps, even some playing fields, and provide the education our children deserve. Use your power to come together and create a stronger bond between teachers and principals. We are in the trenches every day and can provide a new path to teaching and learning.

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