Who's The Boss?
It's that time again. Early Monday morning 900 students will fill the halls of our high school. The last few days of this week began with lazy procrastination and culminated yesterday afternoon in a fevered rush to make everything perfect for the first day of school.
Earlier yesterday morning we had our annual district-wide convocation. For the last few years it has been held digitally, so our staff gathers in the library to watch our superintendent give his remarks about the year ahead. Usually it consists of a lengthy list of accomplishments given school-by-school which is followed by what amounts to a professional pep rally. If you work in public schools, you'll know that it takes a lot of encouragement to make it through a school year; the task ahead is daunting. Sometimes we even watch an inspirational video. I think I shared last year's with you, Dalton Sherman asking, "Do you believe in me?" I was moved to tears last year and walked out of the media center feeling inspired with a fresh commitment to my students and my calling as a teacher.
Yesterday's convocation featured a different video, and I must admit it left me with a feeling quite different from last year's. I'm trying to think of the perfect way to describe it...maybe tired and overwhelmed? Here's the video we saw.
I realize that the video was made with the best intentions in the world. The things Vollmer talks about are absolutely true -- those truths are the very thing that makes it hard to watch right before the first day of school. Teachers are not the intended audience of this video; it just served as a stark reminder of all the challenges we're up against this year, many of them nearly insurmountable. As a veteran teacher I felt downright wilted, so I can only imagine how the new teachers in the room felt. Thankfully we had a little debriefing afterward, and some really uplifting comments were made.
As I put the final touches on my syllabus and made out my seating chart for the first day, I couldn't shake the video. I kept thinking about it and how it made me feel. Public schools, in our society, have morphed into a "one stop shop," the child rearing equivalent of Wal-Mart. The expectation has developed that any need, real or perceived, a child has can and should be met with the school's resources by the school's staff. Now, teachers must not only answer to their principals, superintendents, school boards, state legislatures, and the federal government, but they must also answer to the parents of each individual student. Parents feel entitled to make all sorts of requests of their children's teachers, and it is often up to the teacher to set boundaries. At good schools, like mine, teacher's boundaries with parents are respected and supported. At bad schools, they aren't.
What has essentially happened is that if you're a public school employee, everyone is your boss. Hopefully you can see the difficulty here. When everyone is your boss, it's hard to know who exactly you're supposed to be listening to. Who's your priority? This is one of the underestimated challenges of public school. Remember that big cheating scandal that came to light last year in Georgia? If I understand the story right, the teachers were encouraged by the leadership of their school to cheat. They were faced with the decision to go along their bosses demands or to lose their jobs. Thankfully, I work in a school where dilemmas of that magnitude never make it to my classroom door, but I understand that other educators aren't so blessed.
As usual, I find that my faith makes this question of allegiance easy to answer. In my last post, I told you about my fears for the year, how I was worried about having everything I need. The answer, of course, was that God would provide. He always does, and he always has. Similarly, I figured out who my real boss is a long time ago. God. He's the one I need to please. He's the one I need to listen to. It turns out for the best in every situation. If my superintendent asked me to cheat on a state assessment, I wouldn't do it because it's wrong. My real boss wouldn't like it. My real boss supplies me with wisdom, so I can maintain healthy boundaries with students and parents. My real boss is always with me and supplies all my needs.
When God is your boss, it changes things. I'm not afraid of the year ahead. That mountainous burden of responsibilities that falls on me as a public school teacher seems possible with the creator of the universe on my side. I have the perfect litmus test for everything. I'll just ask, "Is this important to God?" If it is, I'll make it happen. If it isn't, I'll let it fall by the wayside. Easy. Simple. Manageable.
Each school year, I end up with a guiding statement that becomes my focus for the year. Last year it was "Soli Deo Gloria." This year I've already figured out what it will be, before I've even seen a single class. "In all the work you are doing, work the best you can. Work as if you were doing it for the Lord, not for people."(Colossians 3:23 NCV)
Earlier yesterday morning we had our annual district-wide convocation. For the last few years it has been held digitally, so our staff gathers in the library to watch our superintendent give his remarks about the year ahead. Usually it consists of a lengthy list of accomplishments given school-by-school which is followed by what amounts to a professional pep rally. If you work in public schools, you'll know that it takes a lot of encouragement to make it through a school year; the task ahead is daunting. Sometimes we even watch an inspirational video. I think I shared last year's with you, Dalton Sherman asking, "Do you believe in me?" I was moved to tears last year and walked out of the media center feeling inspired with a fresh commitment to my students and my calling as a teacher.
Yesterday's convocation featured a different video, and I must admit it left me with a feeling quite different from last year's. I'm trying to think of the perfect way to describe it...maybe tired and overwhelmed? Here's the video we saw.
I realize that the video was made with the best intentions in the world. The things Vollmer talks about are absolutely true -- those truths are the very thing that makes it hard to watch right before the first day of school. Teachers are not the intended audience of this video; it just served as a stark reminder of all the challenges we're up against this year, many of them nearly insurmountable. As a veteran teacher I felt downright wilted, so I can only imagine how the new teachers in the room felt. Thankfully we had a little debriefing afterward, and some really uplifting comments were made.
As I put the final touches on my syllabus and made out my seating chart for the first day, I couldn't shake the video. I kept thinking about it and how it made me feel. Public schools, in our society, have morphed into a "one stop shop," the child rearing equivalent of Wal-Mart. The expectation has developed that any need, real or perceived, a child has can and should be met with the school's resources by the school's staff. Now, teachers must not only answer to their principals, superintendents, school boards, state legislatures, and the federal government, but they must also answer to the parents of each individual student. Parents feel entitled to make all sorts of requests of their children's teachers, and it is often up to the teacher to set boundaries. At good schools, like mine, teacher's boundaries with parents are respected and supported. At bad schools, they aren't.
What has essentially happened is that if you're a public school employee, everyone is your boss. Hopefully you can see the difficulty here. When everyone is your boss, it's hard to know who exactly you're supposed to be listening to. Who's your priority? This is one of the underestimated challenges of public school. Remember that big cheating scandal that came to light last year in Georgia? If I understand the story right, the teachers were encouraged by the leadership of their school to cheat. They were faced with the decision to go along their bosses demands or to lose their jobs. Thankfully, I work in a school where dilemmas of that magnitude never make it to my classroom door, but I understand that other educators aren't so blessed.
As usual, I find that my faith makes this question of allegiance easy to answer. In my last post, I told you about my fears for the year, how I was worried about having everything I need. The answer, of course, was that God would provide. He always does, and he always has. Similarly, I figured out who my real boss is a long time ago. God. He's the one I need to please. He's the one I need to listen to. It turns out for the best in every situation. If my superintendent asked me to cheat on a state assessment, I wouldn't do it because it's wrong. My real boss wouldn't like it. My real boss supplies me with wisdom, so I can maintain healthy boundaries with students and parents. My real boss is always with me and supplies all my needs.
When God is your boss, it changes things. I'm not afraid of the year ahead. That mountainous burden of responsibilities that falls on me as a public school teacher seems possible with the creator of the universe on my side. I have the perfect litmus test for everything. I'll just ask, "Is this important to God?" If it is, I'll make it happen. If it isn't, I'll let it fall by the wayside. Easy. Simple. Manageable.
Each school year, I end up with a guiding statement that becomes my focus for the year. Last year it was "Soli Deo Gloria." This year I've already figured out what it will be, before I've even seen a single class. "In all the work you are doing, work the best you can. Work as if you were doing it for the Lord, not for people."(Colossians 3:23 NCV)
This is great! I really enjoy your posts and encourage you to continue to "ring your bell"!! Have a great school year and know that I miss sharing it with you:-)
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