Saturday, February 1, 2014

What Teaching Middle School Has Taught Me

The other day I was in a meeting with some administrators and as I was listening to the same 'ol routine of "All students should pass...maybe you're not testing their ability correctly, isn't there some other way besides having them do work to see if they know things....positive reinforcement...", I started to wonder
what would happen if I applied those same principles (I so desperately wanted to be punny and say "principals" but I resisted...) to my own job.

Here is what I came up with:

1.  When I want to stay home from work, I should not have to call.  In fact, they should call me and make sure I'm okay, and tell me if I've missed anything. 


2.  If I miss an entire week of work, I should only have to make up 1 hour the following week.  After all, how much of work is truly valuable?  Apparently 5 days is equivalent to 1 hour.

3.  If my performance review is negative, instead of it being my fault, they should reevaluate the way they judge my performance.  Clearly, they are not judging it in an appropriate way and they need to figure it out.  In the mean time, they should change my review to "acceptable" until they figure out what they did wrong.

4.  Also, if I am struggling in a certain area, instead of offering more training or consequences, they should give me rewards for when I do my job correctly.  Coffee, candy, bonuses, or clothing would be acceptable to me.

5.  Oh yeah, and no matter what my performance, they should most definitely give me high recommendations to my next job!

6.  Now, if I'm really struggling, they should give me an additional prep period a day for me to do whatever I want.  No trainings, no behavior modifications, but maybe some Netflix or Candy Crush time.  Yep, that would work.


Hmmm....this line of thinking clearly makes sense.  The real world encourages me to not be responsible, to not think for myself, to only respond to rewards, and to ALWAYS pass/graduate.  High expectations are ridiculous.  

Now, where do I apply for a job that works like that?




Sarcastic lessons learned,
Mrs. B.

PS-It's been a tough week, can you tell?  Something in our education system desperately needs to change...