Small country, smaller minds

It's taken me a few days to stew about it. I'm finally ready to vent.

(Normally, I wouldn't involve myself in something like this, but having experienced the same kind of crap from the bureaucrats and parents from my school, I fully understand what Dan must be going through and the effect it must have on a new teacher. This is the essence of what I had found wrong with the teaching profession and why, for my own sanity, I had to quit at the end of last year.)

Dan was the subject of a rather malicious and unnecessary attack by his supervisor-twice-removed on Thursday. His professional integrity was questioned by said supervisor, as well as his school spirit (he's at his alma mater, FYI) and attitude.

To which I have this to say:
"... professional integrity was questioned...":
There have been three days' MCs since he'd started teaching, yes, but two were for a sprained ankle and one for a flu. How can anyone (of sound mind and objective perspective) question a teacher's professional integrity when it's something like a sprained ankle? Did she* expect him to hobble around the school in a gallant effort to overcome his pain? He was on crutches, for fuck's sake! Was it not enough that he only took two of the three days he was given for rest?

"You've only been teaching for five months and you already have three MCs this term."

Three days? In five months?

Look, lady, I admire you for your iron constitution (and I would admire you more if you weren't mean-spirited) and your fucking [insert: blind, mindless, drone-like] dedication to the school, but if someone is sick or unfit, you don't expect them to come to work. If you can excuse whiney schoolboys from school or PE because of their precious health, can't you extend the same bloody consideration to a teacher? Is it because teachers, unlike the parents of your precious charges, won't or can't, sue the bejeezus out of the school if bad shit happens to them?

And what are you suggesting? It's okay to take more MCs once you've served your time in the school?

"school spirit...":
He's lacking in school spirit? He couldn't have more school spirit if he tried! I can't imagine what it must be like to return to the school you love enough to want to teach at it, only to be accused of being lacking in school spirit.

And way to foster school spirit among the teachers, lady. Certainly the kind of leadership style that really, really ought to be spread on lecture circuits and at seminars for the I-want-to-be-seen-doing-stuff-and-not-actually-doing-stuff crowds.

Not.

"attitude...":
He's one of only few in the staff meeting not sleeping, having their own conversations and marking scripts, and his attitude gets questioned? This last one, more than the other two, suggests to me that she's simply picking on Dan because she can.


The worst part of it all? That it was done in front of The Man, the other supervisor-twice-removed, his immediate supervisor and someone who might be a supervisor, but probably isn't.

In a whole fuckin' crowd.

Very nice. Very EQ. Pass. A-star.

The Number One Cause of dissatisfaction among teachers isn't the amount of teaching they have to do, or the long-standing issues with classroom sizes and mountains of marking at the end of every school day. It's morale-sapping shit like this and the number of people in all schools everywhere who are doing it to the teachers. With impunity. All in the name of fuck-knows.

It wasn't as if Dan is a threat to the system or to the lofty position the bitch is in, so there really is no reason for her to be chewing Dan out (and for very little justification) in front of everyone. Just a sense of satisfaction accorded only to bullies and other weak people.

I enjoyed teaching. Once in a while, the kids are gems and I feel proud of what they've achieved in the months they've been in my classes. I just didn't enjoy working with the stupid, out-of-touch people who are running the show.

Teaching is supposed to be a calling for most. Don't change it into something horrible for them.


Excuse my language, but things like this really piss me off.

* Not using the gender-neutral term this time.


Also this morning:
Was almost late for the first time.

When a cab arrived there was a female student, from the college I'm at, waiting about four people down the line who will most undoubtedly be late for the start of school. I hesitated, then decided against calling out to her to get into the same cab as me. Which would have helped her since I barely got into the college on time.

All because of two idiot teachers who couldn't keep their penises to themselves.

Sometimes, altruism really takes a bigger person.