These are some very granular ideas that came to me this morning over my cup of coffee. I apologize for the vagueness, but I just needed to get this off my chest. Don’t lie. You know these kind of people.
Too many teachers go about their business in school as though they can’t think as an individual or make individualized decisions as to how best complete their work. They wait for the e-mail from an administrator to tell them that they have to do “x”. This is a major problem, but it isn’t the only problem with how some teachers go about making their daily decisions.
Some teachers utilize their compliance to allow them to escape “getting in trouble” for NOT doing what they are supposed to. Think about the message that this sends about the person who is preparing kids to be successful as independent thinkers. It usually comes in this kind of statement: “If I don’t get an e-mail about it then I won’t do it…”
It’s also true that you can utilize this type of maneuver to utilize practices that benefit your kids, but I’m more concerned with the teachers that use this as a way to prevent having to do work that will ultimately benefit his/her kids.
They’re the ones that fire me up.
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Aaron,
I do agree. How can you have any progress with this kind of attitude – nobody benefits.
Having to hound teachers to complete their professional growth plan is a major peeve for me. If it’s your own growth plan, you should not need to have someone chase you for it! Grrrrr.
Dave
I live withthis everyday. So many teachers see themselvs merely as employees. As if they were only hired to follow orders. I think of my principal as someone who works for me. Most might read that and call me arrogant, but just as the proncipal works for me, I work for the kids. When I say work for I mean to offer support in our ultimate goal: raise children.
Top down managers don’t even belong in the corporate world, let alone in the classroom.
Just as I tell my students Think for yourself, your teacher might wrong, I tell my colleagues Tbink for yourself, your principal might be wrong.
And then I would hope my principal would think for themself, their superintendent might be wrong. And so on… I blogged about this in reference to Milgim’s experiments the other day.
Working for a top down dictator, (oops, I mean principal) I see far too many teachers waiting for the administrative mandates. And usually, failure to comply with the mandate du jour results in some type of retaliation.
However, fully agreeing with Mr. Bower, I work for the kids. And unless the mandates of the moment serve the needs of my students, I am highly unlikely to ‘go with the flow’.
While it means that I am frequently called to task, I hear that call with a clear conscience because I’ve put my students first.
And in education, shouldn’t they ALWAYS be first?