Imaginary Conversations and Random Thoughts

Well, this was a sad year. For the first time, the joy of summer vacation was overshadowed by thoughts of how screwed up next year is going to be. And I didn't do a thing about it.

At the big staff meetings, there was no chance. They should change the name from "staff meeting" to "principal's lecture" because all you do is sit there while he lectures. Most of the time, he treats these lectures as if he were speaking to an audience of three year olds. If "I think you're all retarded" is implicit in everything he says, can't he just get it out of the way at the beginning and save us the attitude? There is no staff input or participation. I've tried to raise my hand and comment several times, and the response is always "Sorry, we've just got so much to get through that we don't have any time for comments." I just learned that the Department Chair meetings (heads of each department meeting with the principal) go the same way. Eventually, I stopped raising my hand and contemplated all the ways I wished I could die rather than be lectured again. And I didn't do a thing about it.

We do have a sort of grievance committee that is set up to hear faculty concerns at the school site. Let's call it the Petitioner's Council. I am on this council. It is scheduled to meet once a month, with a monthly report of issues presented at the following faculty meeting. We met twice in the fall. I did not pursue more meetings. Just like everyone else, I was grateful for one less unpaid, after-hours meeting per month. I never complained. And I didn't do a thing about it.

One of my activities this summer will be to look at what went wrong, what needs to be done to make it right, and why, quite frankly, our school is destined to fail at it. Even if I didn't do a thing about it, I did make a beef list, so I've got a few ideas about where to start. It must be around here somewhere . . .