Re: Helping a teacher

[Deborah Meier <dmeier@ESSENTIALSCHOOLS.ORG>]

Curious:  what has the Mass Ed Reform Act got to do with giving all power
to principals???  I wasn't around in 1993 so, am I missing something?
Mass. principals have virtually no power over anything of importance; and I
agree that the power of principals should come from their
communities--parents and teachers, etc.  And certainly that matters of
graduation standards belong to the whole community and the faculty having
certain special authority.   Deb

Is there anything we can do as a group and/or as individuals to come to
>Teresa's aid? Deb offered aid. Did you have something specific in mind? It
>just seems like we should focus on this one problem--right now.
>
>Actually, this 'situation' seems to point to some of the dangers that Dave
>was pointing to in the Massachusetts Education Reform Act. Putting the
>principal in charge--with teeth--sounds like such a good idea--when one has a
>creative, dynamic, smart, caring, principled principal. But otherwise. . .
>we'd better hope and pray for the union.  I happen to believe that even with
>a creative, dynamic, smart, caring, principled principal, we'd better hope
>the union is there. (And I have PLENTY of problems with the union.) I know I
>wouldn't have lasted longer than three weeks in Troy, New York without the
>AFT at my back. Three weeks after I started teaching, my boss saw a kid
>raising hell in my room--and tore into that kid so badly that I cried. After
>school I went in and said, "Don't you ever do that again." etc.
>Actually, we became friends and I later dedicated a book to him. But...well,
>it's a long story. But that day, after chewing him out, I sure wondered how
>long I'd be teaching in Troy.
>
>I'm just finishing up a book in which I discuss a few other principals,
>people who shouldn't be in charge of a toadstool. One didn't speak to me for
>six months. And I wonder how many teachers on this list would, like me,
>consider that a blessing.
>
>I'm currently listening to a tape of  a session at ASCD: Understanding By
>Design, wherein the presenters make fun of a 3rd grade teacher's unit on
>moving west. The kids have lots of fun, they read a good book, do lots of
>neat projects. But the presenters make fun of it because it contains no 'big
>ideas.' And one of them even tells the audience of hundreds that his
>8-year-old kid was in that class. Gosh that teacher must feel good about her
>new-found fame.
>
>How many big ideas do 3rd graders need? For starters, they need to know how
>to read a knock-knock joke. (My foreign-born husband still has trouble with
>this one.)
>I consider my greatest accomplishment as a third grade teacher was my group,
>segregated out as the 22 worst readers in the school, bought 28 copies of
>Amelia Bedelia when it was offered by the book club. They bought it for
>themselves, for their cousins, for their neighbors. They bought it because it
>was a good book. And when it came, three of them cried. It was the first book
>many of them ever owned, for sure they first one they'd ever bought.
>Well, that's my definition of a big idea.
>But this kind of 'big idea' doesn't count with the power structure. It's
>anecdotal. And third graders should be reading War and Peace or something,
>not something silly like Amelia Bedelia.
>
>I've decided that I'm going to start a campaign for small ideas.
>
>I'm getting very nervous about big ideas and the people who are selling them.
>And I think this is related to what Dave is talking about. I just haven't
>been able to dot the eyes and cross the t's yet. All I know is that when the
>politicians and CEOs start agreeing on the big ideas, watch your wallet. And
>your soul.
>
>But presently I'm really worried about Teresa and wondering what we MUST DO
>to help. Let's come up with a plan.
>
>Susan O.
>
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