Thread: Hating the administrators

My first school was staffed with ineffective administrators and unmotivated teachers. As a first year teacher, I was on fire and lively. The negativity around me was sucking the life out of me. When the general mood of the adults at a school is negative, the kids pick up on it.

I didn't know any better, so I just kept a lively classroom. The students (near the end of the year) commented about my room having a "different feel" than any other that they'd had at that school. I often heard kids say, "I hate this school". It was depressing. Fortunately, I was naive and didn't know that anything else existed. I decided to look at other schools for a higher salary.

Then I found my current school, filled nearly to the brim with high-energy people (just like me!). The administration isn't perfect, but they aren't nearly as bad as my old school. There are a few rotten apples wandering about, but they are easy to avoid. I'm also thrilled that they don't allow ineffective teachers to remain teaching (even if it means they'll have a difficult time filling the position).

I can't say whether that attitude toward admin is prevalent in public schools, but I can say that life is MUCH nicer when you work with professionals who are similar to yourself with a true desire to improve some kids' lives.

I feel bad for them too, sometimes. However I also see that part of the problem, as MM mentioned, is many administrators are ineffective. Some are just downright incompetent and have no business doing what they are supposed to be doing. Administrators, IMHO, should be awesome educators in their own right if they are going to be evaluating teaching and providing guidance for the teachers in their charge. Often I find this not to be the case. Many admins base their decisions on a philosophy and not on effectiveness of instruction, or results. I don;t know how many times I have heard admins use the phrase "my core belief" when rationalizing an educational decision regardless of the results. All too often admins are rewarded for making changes or instituting new policies instead of being effective. A new schedule or a change in text book series are many times the belt notches. I rarely see a new admin continue the direction of a school and make decisions which support the classroom instruction to benefit the education of the kids. Instead they come in and put together a committee to explore the schedule, or a way to redistibrute the staff or pilot a new textbook etc... the goal is not to improve instruction it is to show their bosses they are effective in instituting changes even if said changes have a negative impact on the education of the students.


/soapbox

Administration changes over the years and some are good and others not.

For the years I subbed, the teacher's lounge was a barometer of the health of the school. The atmosphere says a lot about morale and relationships. You can pick up what opinions are about administration.

I really try hard to see things from the administration's standpoint. Not easy this week. Our district let three staff members go as a reduction in force. Our enrollment is declining as are others in the area due to an economic decline. I can see from how teaching assignments are changing for the next year how they are trying to save as many positions for the staff and retain the quality being offered to the students.

I have no complaints with my principal. I hear what I need to hear, and get good backing from her! She comes up with some practical solutions. Our prince has a decent following, even though some have some issues with her. We are, for the most part, a good family.

I can see the detriment to the building when there is a toxic atmosphere. Just my one colleague stands out in our building and elevates the stress a good amount, let alone several types with that personality.

I teach in a school with a bit over a hundred teachers. Roughly, 40 or so of us really care, then about 30 of the remainder care some, and then the remainder don't care. (That's a personal observation). Some of them are actively friends with the principal, some detest the principal, and some don't care either way. He's due to retire soon, and those who like him a lot are dreading it, as they have generally been the ones to prosper under his rule. In any large group of people, you won't find much of a consensus in a lot of cases. In a previous school I worked at, the administrator was pretty much disliked, except by teachers he actively patronized, who idolized him in return.

To be honest, my experiences with school administrators have not been great. I've worked for three, and the best one is ok. As far as the active disrespect that Mrs. D talks about- I sometimes see it in our faculty meetings where some people simply won't shut up (usually the gabby ladies in the back) but I don't see the name calling. I do think that a lot of administrators could do better, but then again- some other teachers might have a different opinion.

Personally, I've seen a general decline in the quality of leadership in schools, overall. The school system I worked for last year (and for the 11 years previous) tended to lose the decent administrators to the surrounding counties who paid more. While I cannot blame those adminisrators for wanting to be compensated more, it often left us with those who either couldn't or shouldn't be administators above the assistant level. Who suffered? The kids, of course. Teachers didn't like it much either.

This year I am in a new school system, one with a much more progressive attitude and one that manages to keep and/or attract good leaders. The one I have now is probably the best I have seen recently. Yes, it's his first principalship and he h asn't forgotten what it's like to be in the classroom. That's always a plus.

Do I agree with everything he says or does? No. But that isn't possible, anywhere. This guy leads, leads from the front. There is no doubt as to who is in charge - the faculty knows, and so do the kids. It makes a huge difference.

Some people will never be happy with any leader. It's just their nature. I generally avoid the teachers lounge and always have. That always seemed to be the den of iniquity.

I will be attending a leadership seminar at the North Carolina Center for the advancement of teaching in Cullowhee this summer. NO, I am not contemplating a move to administration. I would rather drink draino first. But one does not have to be an administrator to be a leader in education. I've always felt it was the staff and faculty that "made" a place "work," even with a weak administration.

It's amazing to me how much an administrator can make or break the overall school climate.

I once had an administrator who was something of a bully. He was a large man and when he reprimanded his teachers, he'd clench his fists, invade their personal space, and tower over them like a threatening Goliath.

He thought nothing of ridiculing, embarrassing, or yelling at a teacher in front of his or her class or in front of other teachers.

During our first faculty meeting on the first day we reported back to work, one week before the start of the new school year, this administrator stood before us and said, "I expect that building administrators across the state of Texas are now standing before their faculties and telling them what an honor and privilege it is to work with such a distinguished group of people. I wish I could say that but I can't. Your test scores last year were pathetic. YOU are pathetic. I'm here to tell you that y'all are a disgrace to the teaching profession. I have been hired by the district to make a clean sweep of this school and by God if any of you fail to measure up, I'll kick your sorry a - -es out the door ... and if you don't like the way I'm talking to you, tough s---. There's the door!"

Before the school year had ended, the vast majority of teachers had either resigned or requested a transfer.

This administrator was universally hated and feared. There was no laughter at the school. There was no joy in teaching. This particular building administrator was very similar in personality to the character, Ms. Trunchbull in Roald Dahl's book, "Matilda," i.e. f you are having fun, you are not learning"

"I cannot for the life of me understand why small children take so long to grow up. I think they do it deliberately, just to annoy me."

"You couldn't spell "difficulty" if your life depended on it. "

(sigh)

I have also had the great pleasure to work with some truly wonderful administrators who made the school a home away from home. With these administrators, it was a pleasure to go to work and nobody ever wanted to leave this campus. We actually had students who cried at the thought of leaving our school and going to Middle School. We also had teachers cry after their non-teaching spouses got transferred and they had to resign from our school.

I'm sorry you're having this experience. I'm sure it's terribly demoralizing to the faculty to have to work with people who have provided no effective leadership.

Unfortunately in a situation like this, there's really not too much you can do other than to document your personal experiences and interactions with these administrators.

With this being said, I would personally not roll my eyes at the administrators or participate in the exchange of snide comments about the administrators for two very important reasons.

1) This sets a very bad example for your students.

2) You also don't want to be charged with insubordination or unprofessional conduct.

At my school, the admin-teacher-student hierarchy is... interesting. There is neither happiness and cooperation, nor contempt and conflict. Rather, I sense more of a don't-ask-don't-tell-just-do-your-thing-and-I'll-do-mine attitude. Whenever the principal or assistant principal comes on the announcements - for whatever reason - there's a collective eyeroll and we (meaning the class and often the teacher too) might take a moment to speculate about the ridiculousness of the way our school is run. However, if you get a chance to have an actual conversation with those in charge, they're really very lovely people, they're just bogged down in work. I personally think our school is understaffed as far as counselors/secretaries/assistants go, so if the administrators don't cover a task, nobody does.

The problems that arise in the running of our school seem to stem from a lack of effectiveness rather than an excess of domination. Like, there are a lot of things I notice that need to be taken into account (e.g., starting the college counseling thing with the eighth graders than halfway through junior year; or, on the days that the buses arrive very late, feeding the bus riders who miss the school breakfast) - and it's not that nobody wants to deal with these things, I think it's just that nobody really waves their hand in the air and goes "HEY! A little help here!" Which I am guilty of not doing, for both of the issues that I mentioned.

As for teacher-admin relations... Well, there's the normal lack of productivity in faculty meetings. But the teachers seem to be given a lot of freedom as far as how they teach, and materials they pick to work with. Sometimes they're given too much freedom, I think, and the teachers who don't care (everyone knows who they are) aren't being kicked in the rear like they should be.

I think classroom teaching should be a requisite of administratorhood. I'd like to be an admin, actually. I think I'd be good at it.

In an ideal world, I think it'd be great if building administrators, superintendents, and even college professors had to rotate back into the classroom every few years as a way of keeping in touch with a reality of life "in the trenches."

If the people who came up with the idea of "standardized instruction," "open classrooms," and whole language (without a strong phonetic component) actually had to teach using these concepts, perhaps school districts wouldn't be so quick to jump on the latest educational bandwagon ... and who knows ... maybe the growing rate of teacher turnover would be reduced.

(sigh)

Agreed David. I would take it a step further and argue that educational administrators are REQUIRED to teach a minimum of one class per semester. This class is deemed the "most difficult" or the students "most in need". It is these students who should benefit from the educational expertise of these administrators who have climbed to the highest echelons. We should put the most needy students with the most expert educators. The chief surgeons at hospitals take the most difficult cases, and they are in management. Unless the administrators are the best educators in the building, they should not be evaluating the teaching of those "beneath them". I was very careful to distinguish these administrators from building administrators who deal with budgets and schedules and all the business aspects of the schools. These administrators need not be educators at all. In fact, I would require most to have a minimum of an MBA. These administrators do not make educational decisions nor do they evaluate teachers. Their job is to work with the educational admins to get the educational staff the resources necessary to do their job. Ahh in a perfect world. Perhaps Oprah will read this and develop a new school based on these principles (or is it principals? hehe).