Micromanaging principals & executives are like pythons who slowly suffocate their victims. They gradually suck the will to live from their staff and leave them discontent, depressed, unwilling to take initiative, sapped of creativity, frustrated, unable to sleep, reliant on alcohol & completely burnt out.
Here is an example from a friend who attends the same 'back to work' program as I do. She is a little stressed, to say the least, as a result of working in such a toxic workplace.
It is almost the end of term. Student reports have been handed back for rewriting, teaching programs and registers are due (each minute of the day is to be accounted for, each page to be submitted in a plastic sleeve and decorations to be in watercolor pencil only), projected budgets for 2012 are due, the sports carnival software has crashed without a backup, the school concert is in two weeks and her illustrious leader has just set out an email demanding a database for how the students would like their fundraiser hot dogs... White roll? whole meal? gluten free? margarine? butter? mustard? ketchup? pickle relish? coleslaw? sauerkraut? onion? mayonnaise? lettuce? tomato? cheese? chili peppers? or any combination of the aforementioned!!!
Needless to say, staff morale is at an all time low. Many people are considering leaving and children are not being educated to the best of the teachers' ability as they deal with petty obsessions and administrivia. School has become a boring and unstimulating place for the teachers as well as the students.
So what can we do?
According to the literature the best way to deal with this type of person is to see them as an escaped psychiatric patient. Then join a gym, eat out, skydive, minimize the amount of time you spend at school, go swimming, watch a movie, go for a long walk and ask yourself, 'What am I doing to look after my mental health and well being in this environment?'
My answer in a nutshell is..."MICROMANAGE THIS BABY!!!"
BT
PS If you click on the image I've made it big enough for desktop wallpaper :-)
At tonight's 'twilight session' yet another flavour of the month, fly by night, 'educational guru' shared the priceless catch cry, 'We are preparing them for their future not our past' on her interactive whiteboard.
Have you ever heard such drivel?
This misinformed pseudo intellectual needs to take a leaf from the inspired leadership of a school in my local district. In this 'cutting edge' school the children are forbidden from logging into the computer system until they are in Year 3. This visionary policy ensures the, 'little vessels' have ample time to be 'filled' with all the skills that will equip them to experience success in the schooling system.
The little inhereters of the world can: work through their phonics colouring books, learn their sums, complete title pages, learn to use bubble writing, master glitter pens, colour in the lines and leave no white spaces, line up outside the classroom, march into class single file, put their hands up to answer questions and learn that their is no place in true education system for individualism or critical thinking.
As I drove the Bentley home tonight passed the bus stops where the plebs were waiting for public transport, I arrived at the conclusion that these 'education gurus' are of the opinion that education' is something more than a sorting mechanism for society. WAKE UP PEOPLE! It is not!
We MUST perpetuate the status quo in the schooling system so we can ensure adequate supply of CEOs, lawyers, kitchen hands and garbage workers. If we actually 'educated' the masses, people would realise that what we call 'democracy' is merely a facade and on a more serious note, there would not be enough Pimms or brioche to go around!
Sincerely
The Bolshie Teacher
PS Do you think I use 'inverted commas' a little too freely?
You know I'm all for having Saturday detention for the miscrents who constantly have their shirts untucked as well as for those who fail to hand in homework on time. I'm also all for failing students who do not achieve a minimum 85% on their exams or fail to put adequate effort into their Latin assignments. The students need these incentives to serve as a reminder that the real world does not tolerate failure.
Teachers on the other hand have 'done their time'! It is a completely different kettle of fish if we don't have time to explore a new piece of software or 'do group work'. When will the executive learn that I get great results in the standardised tests so I don't need to change any part of my teaching practise. Besides, all my lesson plans are laminated and have been for 25 years.
The core business of schools is to educate children. Anything that keeps people from doing this task is 'one step removed' from the core business of the school. So once management (notice I refrain from calling it leadership) start: renaming departments, restructuring, writing vision statements, holding workshops on school marketing and any other form of 'administriva' then they are neglecting their core business!
Try taking the agenda of your next staff meeting and put a dot next to any item that is not associated with educating children. Next, put another dot next to any item that could have been achieved with a memo or email.
What can we learn from the above activity? Learn to succeed despite management!!!
As part of the 'back to work' program I'm on, I have to attend quiet a few 'twilight professional development sessions'. And let me just say that the methods they use are enough to have the little woman pour me a contreau or four so I can bare it.
Once seated I have learned to 'phase out' when the presenters use words like: pedagogy, metacognition & 21st Century Skillset however the one thing I cannot abide is the butchers' paper! I have come to abhor it! NOTHING gets me more in touch with my inner ADHD than arriving fashionably late to see 'groups' of people 'scribing' their inane ideas onto large sheets of paper and then 'sharing'. I mean realistically... my school have paid for me to learn from experts! I do not want to explore the thoughts of common people! Especially when the best the activity can possibly achieve is the intellect of the smartest person in the room.
Please use the technology to find out what others who matter think and spare me the facade of you caring what I think!
BT
