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.

I think that the principal of a high school should be the one who is the leader, the, God Almighty I'm going to use a Star Trek reference, the Capt. Picard of the school.

Picard would face yet another crisis in the galaxy and unlike Kirk, who would kick Picard's butt in a fight, would gather all his team together and say, "Hey team, we have another crisis in the galaxy." The team consisted of Riker the handsome rugged first mate, Trois the fetching psychic, Jordy the blind engineer, and Data the green skinned robot who tried mightily to become the human in humanoid. The team would gather around the table in Picard's stateroom and discuss the situation. After listening to everyone's comments, he would pick the best course of action and then say, "Make it so."

The principle of a high school should be that type of leader. Unfortunately most don't see that true, real, and effective change comes from the bottom up and not from the top down. Teachers need to be able to come up with ideas and try them out without fear of repercussions or reprisals for going against the ideas of the principal. Of course teachers shouldn't be doing something illegal or immoral in the classroom, but that is not what we are talking about here.

Instead of saying to teachers, "We are going to do this...," principals should be saying, "We have this problem, what should we try to do to fix it." Supposed, for example, a building has an influx of at risk students who have very limited English speaking or writing abilities. Instead of coming up with some program or class for those students, the principal should ask the staff first what might be tried. Then see if that works or not before trying something new or mandating something that only a relatively few support or even understand.