When I got home from class last night I saw a fairly large envelope we’d received in the mail. The return address had Audrey’s teacher’s name. It was a sympathy card and a small book about grief. She noted that it had helped her when she had suffered loss. She’d also sent Audrey a card where everyone in the class had signed and included a note. Seeing the cards and the book certainly gave me a moment of pause. It was a reminder that this person was not a villain and that it is very easy to villainize people when we are angry.
Nevertheless, good people make mistakes, and those mistakes need to be corrected. I started thinking about a situation I experienced as a middle school administrator. A group of girls were caught drinking vodka and orange juice in music class. This was a group of girls that never got in trouble. The principal took the lead on the situation since the other assistant principal and I were each in the middle of handling fights (It was one of those days.). When I walked by her office and saw the look on her face, I knew this would be no ordinary discipline referral. One of the girls was the granddaughter of the former principal. This was not good. Ultimately, the other girls and their parents took responsibility, accepted the ten-day suspension, and they indicated that they would seek help for their daughters during that time. The daughter’s family of the former principal, however, refused to accept the punishment and insisted on a hearing.
The discipline hearing was a circus. The former principal decided that she would be the defending counsel. She subpoenaed a number of teachers from the school to come and testify – none of whom were witnesses to the incident. The teachers were at a loss as to why they were subpoenaed. As the hearing progressed, each was called in. The former principals asked, “Is ___________ a good girl?” to which the teacher would answer yes and then confirm various “good” attributes the student possessed. The principal and I responded, “Do good girls make mistakes?” to which each teacher answered yes. We then asked, “And should mistakes have consequences?” to which they also answered yes. We finally asked, “And should consequences be consistent?” Again, they answered yes. Given that the panel was hearing this message over and over again, the daughter’s grandmother soon gave up and did not call all the teachers in to testify.
I must admit, this was a brilliant plan on the grandmother’s part. She knows human nature – especially as it plays out in schools. As it is with Marley’s ghost, so it is with educators: We’re in the reclamation business. As such, being “good” is important. It is so important that it often leads to the assumption that you should never do “bad” things to good people. I think this is one of the biggest challenges for school administrators when it comes to working with teachers. Teachers are good people. They sacrifice and work long hours for little pay. They are abused by the media as well as by many students and parents. They come to school sick, hurting, exhausted, and they are expected to smile and make the learning environment as positive as possible in spite of what may be going on in their own lives. All of this is true. So how can an administrator admonish a teacher – particularly if the potential fall-out of their actions is not obvious or immediate?
I have witnessed this personally. As an administrator in another school we had a situation in which a teacher was struggling with so many personal issues that she had not been able to function at even a minimal level in her classroom. We began to see the full extent of her problems halfway through the first grading period. It was so obvious that other teachers were telling us that they were concerned. In spite of our interventions, it became clear to us that her students had lost nearly a semester of “learning” as a result of this teacher. We pulled her out of the classroom mid-year, gave her something to do the rest of the year that would have as little impact on children as possible, and by the end of the year explained she’d have an assignment the following year that we knew she could not and would not take. She had to quit. Ironically, those teachers who saw the damage she was doing to her kids were the same teachers who attacked us for being so cruel and pushing her out. It is human nature. She was a good person. She just happened to be a good person who was hurting children. Yes, good people make mistakes. Yes, mistakes should have consequences, and yes, those consequences should be consistent.
If teachers are so quick to circle the wagons, even in an extreme case like we faced, then how will they respond if they feel one of their own is under attack? What makes this even more challenging for a school administrator is when the issues that need to be resolved have consequences that are more ambiguous. Whose to say that excessive competition will have long-term effects? As the administrator who observed the class noted, “How do you know whether the kids know who is on what level? I couldn’t tell.” So what if a quarter science grade is only based on one paper and it’s not about science. What’s the real harm in that? I think this is why the counselor was so quick to note that she saw no obvious signs of anxiety or negative feelings about math. If you don’t see something immediate and explicitly connected to the work of the teacher (a bruise, a melt-down, etc.) then no harm-no foul. I also think this is why judging teachers simply by test scores is so seductive to so many – it is far easier and removes administrative culpability: the numbers don’t “lie.”
The crossroads of teaching reform come together in dangerous ways here – much like many of the “crossroads” here in Morgantown where the curves prevent you from seeing the risk. First, it’s very easy to villainize, so some administrators (and parents) are quick to resort to this. In these cases, the administrators and/or parents become the villains and no good can come of it. Second, it’s human nature to excuse bad choices when the person making them is a “good person.” For many administrators, there is just too much potential fall-out to deal with issues, so they ignore them and hope that nothing blows up on their watch.
But, good people make bad choices. Bad choices hurt children. You may not see a literal bruise, but you know that it will affect how they see themselves for years to come. Therefore, bad choices need to have consequences. I still support the “reclamation business” of schools. I still believe that if administrators appeal to teachers’ core commitments to children and help them SEE what their choices are doing to those children that things can get better. However, I also believe that when and if a teacher sees what her actions are doing to children and chooses to not change, then the administrator has to take action. There are times as an administrator when you must deal with the circled wagons for the sake of the children.
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