Re: Teacher fired, others resign
I question whether this mass quiting is something I would assign the term integrity to. Sounds more like union solidarity and a power play against management than a nobel jesture. They got the national attention they were looking for and we here on an international board are discussing the event. <br /><br />Have they considered the impact to the community with regards to the consistancy of education in this small town? How will this positively impact the children they are employed to teach? My read is that this is the old I'll take my bat and ball and go home trick. I certainly wouldn't put the teachers on the side of the angels just yet. How about committing 20% of their income to hiring a lawyer and fighting this administrators actions. You have assigned a possible kickback component to this event, this is exactly the type of speculation that this act is trying to cultivate. Again you have heard one side of the arguement, and now state that the parents were coerced? How about just saying no. How about private school, home school, legal action, a compromise. There is always an opportunity for oversight, school board, district administrator, hell even the teachers union rep. The options range is overwhelming. Active participation in a childs education is primarily in the hands of and the responsibility of the parents. And if this childs refusal to do work created a 10min disruption of a class of 25, that is over a 4hr cumulative loss of learning and that also is unacceptable, and providing aid and comfort is tatamont to rewarding bad behavior. And that will lead to further loss of learning to all the children who want to do their assigned work.<br /><br />Ever been in detention? Not a lot of learning going on there. It is time wasted. You want to send a child who won't do their studies in class to a less formal environment and expect them to be productive. Not a winning strategy in my opinion. I once got in trouble and was made to clear an old ball diamond of weeds with a shovel. Not a learning experience? I learned a ton. I learned that my time was valuable and while my friends were playing, I was digging weeds. I remembered and decided that this was not a career field I wanted to persue. My dad almost never grounded me. He had WORK details like mowing the lawn, removing a sidewalk with a sledgehammer and wheelbarrow, putting insulation in the attic, waxing boat etc. Hard work, all learning experiences. Let's not be premature with regards to the motives of this administrator. Each person assigns different values to different outcomes, but this situation will not play out to the point where one could define a success or failure to due to this teachers acts.<br /><br />But lets take a look at the teachers motives. Why would she attempt to usurp her superiors decision with regards to this childs punishment? She is now using a child to support her actions. Now it is a punishment that has no value and who created that? Yep, the teacher not the administrator. They have put this child in the center of this tempest and put the child in a most uneducational position.<br /><br />Why didn't she go to the administrator with her concerns? Way too many intangibles within this story to take a side. I truely believe it is the administrator who has the right to decide who he wants on his teaching team, and not the team's decision. Otherwise you end up like coaches in the NBA, and have the inmates running the asylum. <br /><br />If my boss asked me to shovel a dung pile, a job I didn't sign up for, I would do the job first and then raise cain about the assignment. I am then in an advantagous position to prevent this from happening again and perhaps puttin a hurtin on my boss. But perhaps that is just old school. With authority comes responsibility and accountability, and the path taken has now made him neither.<br /><br />No winners here. Just a string of terrible decisions on everyones part creating this debacle. And it seems there are no adults among them to help put this silly little issue to rest. Not trying to attack your position DM, just something that in my opinion never recieves balanced attention due to the "children" factor.
