In 2007 during my battle at a Northwest Side high school, I wrote a paper entitled It’s Almost Impossible To Be A Good Teacher In A Bad School. It’s too long, but I share part of it here. There are at least four factors responsible for a bad school. One is authoritarian leadership overseeing 21st Century urban youth. I’ve used allegory to describe an actual meeting one morning at a school named Pitiful.
They Don’t Get No Respect
At Pitiful High School there’s a meeting every morning; consequently, teachers begin their day under threat of reprimand and with no time to reflect. At these meetings veterans are belittled by administrators and lectured to by neophytes who give repetitive examples of how to conduct generic lessons that supposedly will raise test scores (They didn’t). Wednesdays were Common Planning Meetings for every teacher in every department. So, one bright September morning, during a CPT meeting, the department chair Ms. Please! Just-Do-As-You-Are-Told was summoned over the intercom no less than four times. Ms. Please! was discussing the common assessment when first summoned; the second summons was to meet the principal, Dr. Queen on the Throne, in room 666. At this point, Ms Please! Just-Do-As-You-Are-Told was frazzled and frustrated. About two minutes later, an assistant summoned Ms. Please! as well as Ms. Too-Old-To-Be-Naïve and Ms. I-Can-Do- Anything (all part of the same CPT team) to room 666 where the meeting was to be reconvened. The three made their way to the room of gloom, but as they approached, they saw Dr. Queen on the Throne hobbling away. Ms. I-Can-Do-Anything called out, “Dr. Queen on the Throne! Dr. Queen on the Throne!” A student then called, “Dr. Queen on the Throne!” Ms. Too-Old-To-Be-Naïve added,”Dr. Queen on the Throne, we’re all here!” The Queen finally turned around and headed back to 666 where she proceeded to tear into Ms. Please’s ass for not getting there sooner. Thus the meeting began again with the addition of the principal and another “team” member, Ms. Oh-My-God. It was pitiful: like reality show contestants about to be eliminated, the teachers tried to impress the Queen by outdoing each other with suggestions, defense of, and criticism for the common assessment they were to work on. Those educators had nearly 100 years of experience among them, but that morning they turned on each other, snappin’ like turtles. A room of only five filled with tension and toxins that swirled a disastrous poison. The stress those teachers felt negatively impacted their students, no doubt. An educator made to feel bad is one more reason why it’s almost impossible to be a good teacher in a bad school.
