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Report from the Field – Tina Hargaden
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8 thoughts on “Report from the Field – Tina Hargaden”
Tina, this is so wonderful! I agree that the administration ultimately did you a favor, but it wasn’t because they intended to, so they don’t any credit.
(There is a story about Billy Graham and his wife Ruth. They attended a church service, and when he offering plate was passed, Billy Graham took a bill out of his wallet and put it in the plate. Then he realized that he had put $20 instead of $5 in the plate. When he told his wife about the mix-up, Ruth said to him, “Too bad you only get credit for the five.”)
My only suggestion is for you to encourage parents to write to the school and district about their perception of your program. I don’t think I would start a campaign, but every time a parent mentions your classes, tell them that the best thing they can do to make certain it continues is to put their support in writing and send it to the principal, the superintendent, and members of the school board – and to send you a copy. That way you have a record of support, and the administrate on will have to acknowledge that support. It is entirely possible that you principal had one or two parents say something. After all, we know that there is almost always at least one parent who wants their children to “work hard” in every class. But then the comment of perhaps one or two was generalized into “parents have said”. This way, you have copies of the positive comments. In addition, encourage the parents to tell the principal in person about how happy they are with their children’s language instruction.
If questioned, you can smile and reply that you are simply gathering data and getting input from all stakeholders. (Those are nice buzzwords.)
…it is entirely possible that your principal had [only] one or two parents say something….
I would say it is very probable that it was only one or two (at the most) parents, but they probably had influence. We seem to be at some kind of crossroads in our country between those who bluster the loudest, without really knowing what they are talking about, and quieter people. So I strongly support Robert’s position that, done in the right way, we ask for written support from happy parents sent to our administrators about what we are doing. That’s really all that some principals listen to. Why would they ever listen to us, when we are not in a position of approving or disapproving of their job performance, which is really messed up because we are the ones working for them! It’s all about power. Luckily, when I think that teachers like Tina and Steven and Elena are out there, I see the power subtly shifting back to where it should be – with teachers!
Hollywood needs to hear of your story, Tina. We are due another movie like “Stand and Deliver” or “Dead Poets Society.” You’d be more like Robin Williams in “Dead Poets Society,” though.
THAT IS MY FAVORITE MOVIE OF. ALL. TIME.
What a great story, Tina. Thank you for sharing in detail.
What a timely post for all of us to soak in some enthusiastic, level-headed positivity. It’s Karma – all the good that you put out so fearlessly and lovingly comes back to you (and since we all support and respect you so, back to all of us!)
Tina, I’m so happy that you got this overwhelming support after such a stressful time with your admin. You deserve it. Your kids are happy to have you and so are the parents. You are a wonderful teacher and that shouldn’t have been questioned in the first place. I hope that this will be just the start of a reform of the language program in your district. Hopefully soon your “traditional” colleagues will instead be getting the friendly message of “We still have storage space in the basement, would you like me to bring your textbooks down there?”
Textbook adoptions which are required every so often cost schools upwards of $15,000 each time. One would think that the admins would appreciate what we bring to them in terms of saved dollars.
I just remembered doing an interview for an AP French job at Highlands Ranch HS here in Denver (suburbs). The principal proudly pointed to a brand new set of textbooks in a box near his text. Ten minutes later I was gone.
Don’t forget Robert Harrell’s nine point Primer on Textbook Adoption. Just click on the Primers hard link at the top of this page. It’s a beautiful outline of things we need to know about textbooks even if we don’t use them.