Here Is a Teacher Story That Didn't Make the Cut from my Memoir
You, too, can have mind-numbing stories if you become a teacher
My memoir as a teacher is unfolding nicely. I have enough stories to write a book. It's been difficult at times and rewarding at other times.
Stories make up the life of a teacher. In education, a teacher is a pawn in a game of chess. We take orders. Anyone who has been a teacher knows what we go through daily.
The purpose of schools is to educate students. The problem with the antiquated and archaic system is that non-experts run the show.
Here is an example of one of the many stories I've collected in my 25-plus years of teaching.
Every year, the state administers a state exam to see if students have learned what they should be learning. It's also a mechanism the state uses to evaluate the schools. They want to know if the schools are educating students.
I've been proctoring state exams for many years. Every principal has their procedure. This one principal came up with the most ridiculous procedure known to man.
Part of the state testing rules is that only current test takers are allowed during test time.
Fair enough!
The procedures from the previous administration used every nonteacher to help during testing.
It helps reduce wasteful class time. However, I had one principal use his version of the testing procedure. Here was his procedure.
My class started with 24 students taking the test. The state exam is adaptive so that each student finishes at different times. They are also given up to three days to finish the test. When one student finishes their test, they leave to go to the library because the rule is they can't remain in the testing area.
Imagine the entire junior class taking the test. Each student finishes their test at different times. By the end of the week, I had one student in class while 23 others were in the library.
That's just one teacher, me.
Next, add every other junior teacher doing the same thing. The library was overcrowded. Students were walking around campus because they couldn't return to their teacher. After all, we were still administering one student in class.
By Friday, junior teacher classrooms were empty, with only one student taking the state exam. The rest of the students were in the library or roaming around the campus because of the state test rule. They were not allowed in class during testing.
I was also one of three on-campus union representatives to represent faculty to the principal.
As a concerned teacher and union representative, I went to the principal to voice my concerns.
It didn't go well. The principal said his procedure worked, but the students wasted time for six years during his tenure. As for being a union representative, we argued too much.
My colleague and fellow union representative were each given a verbal and written reprimand. To quote my former principal, "I'm the boss."
I'm the boss.
Teacher complaints went on deaf ears for six years during his tenure. Every testing week for six years, we filled the library with students because they couldn't return to their teacher administering the test in their room.
The principal eventually left the school. I left one year before he left my former school, and the teachers at my former school are happy he is no longer there.
Teachers are important to the school, but incompetent principals can worsen the school.
Imagine once a year, students fill the library because they have nowhere to go. They waste at least one week of no work because of a principal with a big ego.