Education attracts an odd group of bed fellows. In a way you can divide them into three groups. There are some, like me who fell into the profession purely by chance. The second group choose an education major because it was "safe", "a good job for a woman" or had "good job prospects". And then there is the last group, that small minority who became teachers because they truly, truly love children and want to make a difference in someone's life. We need lots more of them.
One thing most teachers (esp. if they are from the middle group) don't like is change. They like their little boxes, with the corners all aligned and everything under control and neatly in its place. Which is odd, since you are dealing with children who are never neat, never aligned and very hard to control.
And with teacher turnover which is pretty much constant. We found out today our Assistant Principal (who is a member of the third group) was just promoted to Principal at another school.
She's the 6th Assistant Principal in my 15 year tenure at my school. We've a reputation as a incubation hive for future principals. They spend a couple of years with us, feeding on the royal jelly and then spread their wings and fly.
This one will fly high, by far she's the most gifted educator I've ever worked with (other than my principal). We are really going to miss her. I hope her replacement is half as good.
So next year will bring forth yet another new supervisor and another round of changes.
3 comments:
How lovely it must be to know that you are in a school that is doing things well. Frustrating as it is to keep losing them, at least you are losing them to a good cause, and with luck a good number of them are from your third category and will go on to change the lives of countless young people.
Yes, and hopefully she will have caused some lasting change for the better. No amount of money in the world could induce me to become a school administrator. Even the really good ones are constantly under fire from somewhere; there's no way they can please everybody. And although they appear to have a lot of power because they're "in charge" of the school, they don't really; they're just middle management. This is a parent's perspective, anyway; do teachers see it differently?
I am 58 years old and have been retired for 13 years. The business I owned was purchased by a bigger company and the money I made allowed me to retire at 45. I think if I had to do it all over again I would be a college professor. A lot less worry and stress.
George
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