Notice the war comparisons. Not an accident. We are in a war. We are being wounded. We get most wounded when there is a combination of philosophical attack from within the department (in my case 8 of 10 of were against me), and administrative attack from the top when they find out (wrongly) from the department that there is one among them who is “not doing it right”.
But principals vary. The best news I have heard in the past month from any of us is from Chris, who has neatly done a high jump over the foot soldiers he is facing to the back of the lines where he met with the officers (principals and district people in his part of Ohio) standing in the back of the battle field and had those discussions with them that have made them reflect in a different way about the entire battle. That takes courage and, although he is walking a fine line (he’s not one to back away), he is on the right side of the line.
So, do you see? It’s all about officer support in this war. Most administrators are still on the side of the dominant member of the department. If the dominant member is an old timer with power, the administration often doesn’t question them and that is when new teachers suffer, precisely bc they are new and cannot verbalize (are not allowed to and are too new to all of this) any objection.
The principals and vice principals are really not to be blamed usually – they listen to “the way it’s always been done” or, like mine at East, don’t have enough of a brain to care. Few principals come up to a teacher like happened with Chris the other day and ask about verb conjugating in a curious way and then get to hear a strong answer like the one Chris gave, which (that one little answer) poked a hole in the dam and look out in Ohio there’s gonna be a flood.
So we forgive the officers, the principals, because in a war theirs is not to make policy decisions about vision and philosopy, which come from higher up. Luckily Terri is there in Ohio, and the other people Chris has mentioned. We’ve come a long way from worrying about that one guy at the state level in Columbus, remember? And now we have our own Tamula Drumm wielding a big stick up there in Akron. So things are shaking in Ohio and when things are shaking there is always hope for lone wolves everywhere.