Difficulties in a school year

One of the most difficult times of a school year is not when grades are due or when budget numbers are once again inexorably heading toward oblivion. Sure, students are scrambling to get work done expecting their teacher to accept something that was due three weeks ago and done only now in a half-hearted attempt at a modicum of quality because almost anything is better than having a zero average in. And, yes, those same students may whine and complain that the teacher is being unfair and have their parents call to whine and complain that the teacher is being unfair. That, however, is all part of the job of being a teacher, trying to keep kids doing their work and striving for excellence.

So, too, is putting up with constant budget cuts in education. New programs, new technology, new ideas and an entire slue of other factors stress any organization's cash flow, be it a big business or a small school district.

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I heard a radio talk show this morning on the way to church. Yes, I go to church. Every Sunday. Religiously. Is that redundant? When I go to Mass, at the part where we're to add our intentions or our prayers, I always ask God to make me a better husband, father, and teacher; in short, to make me a good person.

I tend to go off on tangents sometimes, sort like stream of consciousness, although I don't think anybody including James Joyce actually knew what it means as writer. I mean just try reading Joyce's Finnegan's Wake! I'm still on Chapter 1 and only know for sure that Finnegan died. Joyce wrote a little bit about going to church which is where I was headed when I heard something on the radio that relates to the school at which I teach.

Although the radio show was about business, the discussion centered on something that I think is still important for a principal or any administrator to understand. Communication and trust. Communicate and keep everybody in the loop. People will understand the ups and downs, the joys and disappointments of any job. The key is not to micromanage everything. Rather trust people to do the job you hired them to do. At the school where I work, the adminsitration does not communicate, and tries to micromanage everything. When a prinicpal calls in the parents of several students who are not passing and tries to understand why they don't do the work, that is micromanaging. When an adminstrator dismisses department chairs because they are too negative or critical of the administration, that is micromanaging and not trusting people to do the job. Instead it is surrounding oneself with "yes" people and only fosters more discontent.

That is the real difficulty of a school year. When the adminstration comes up with ideas without any real input from a staff and without any consideration of how it really affects students.

Instead they create programs which are designed to help a small number of students, pull out programs that segregate students and ignore the vast majority. The vast majority see that some are gettting special treatment and start thinking, quite naturally, that they are getting the short of the stick educationally. Pull out programs stress class size and upper level electives when staff is allocated to deal with them. That is just wrong.

And that's the real problem with adminstrators not trusting their staff to do the job. Instead of accepting legitimate criticism, the bad administrator tries to silence it.