understanding

[Note: I have made some edits to this post, and noted them with brackets and italics like this.]

I look up from my desk, and in through the door tumble two small girls punching each other and pulling hair. As I jump up my colleague from next door arrives, and we wrestle them apart. This takes a couple of minutes because I have to pry one girls hand loose from the other one’s hair which she won’t let go. It turns out they’re fighting over a boy, or over someone telling someone something about a boy that they weren’t supposed to. I march the one down to the Dean’s office, and my colleague holds the other one back.

Then it’s time for a final exam.

During the final exam, I spend most of my time sparring over email with our AP. Because the principal is a lame duck [meaning that there is a job posting up for his position, with an active and public selection process for next year’s principal currently happening] the assistant superintendent has empowered a “Curriculum Council” made up of the department chairs to basically run the school. This, while it will be a lot of work, is probably the best thing that could happen to the school at this point. It’s just getting started, and of course the assistant superintendent put the AP “in charge” of the council. The teachers are feeling good, because for the first time ever we have the prospects before us of making the school run smoothly. Or at least the prospect of making a few things run functionally, which would be an improvement.

Hence the sparring. The council left our last meeting without setting our next meeting date. Over email, people started proposing that we meet on Friday. The AP shot everyone down, saying that we ought to be working on grades. He basically didn’t want a meeting. There were grumblings and counter-proposals over email and he held the hard line against any meetings this week. [All of the teachers wanted to meet, but he was determined that we shouldn’t.] So the period ends and I collect the exams. Some of them look great, others don’t.

I email back to everyone and say that of course we shouldn’t meet because it’s very important to work on grades (which aren’t due until Tuesday, by the way) but that if anyone wants to come up to my room just to talk informally at 1pm tomorrow, they are welcome to. Everyone on the council replies that they will come. Not too long after that, a very angry AP shows up at my door. He’s pissed that I’m would suggest to people that they do anything during working hours besides the things he orders them to do.

After I get him calmed down, I point out that it’s quite a bad idea to start off a new council by immediately opposing their meetings. I point out that I’ve supported him in getting what he needs. I talk him through admitting that he’s worried about grades being turned in on time. I observe that grades really aren’t due until Tuesday, and that people will be working over the weekend regardless. I invite him again to come to the 1pm meeting. I remind him that if he comes to the meeting, he can tell us to do our grades on time. And I make it obvious that we’ll be meeting with or without him, so he might as well try to save some face. Of course, I do this all in [such a way] that in the end he leaves my room thanking me and saying he’s always open to discussing things. I must have Jedi mind control or something.

[There are many other observations I could make about this AP, but they are essentially irrelevant to the story.]

He gets back to his office and his next reply to the whole email thread arguing about the meeting says, “So we will meet at 1 p.m. for a 30 minute meeting.” I end up laughing out loud, but also feeling pretty bad about it. If this is what we’re up against, internally, it’s hard to have a lot of hope for success overall.