Administrators are supposed to lead the public schools. Usually, they find themselves run by and overrun by the demands of the public schools. The parents, the teachers’ unions, the district officials above and beyond their pay grade make demands that should cause any educator to think twice before taking a leadership position on campus.
Administrators face conflicts and conflicting challenges. The demands on their time, allegiance, sense of purpose can be quite daunting.
I would never want to be an administrator. In many ways, they are just as powerless as teachers have become, under bondage to school boards, district officials, and parents who are looking for any ready opportunity to sue if they do not get their way.
Still, schools need leadership, and with many administrators at the helm more worried about keeping their jobs than keeping students accountable, I fear that a growing number of teachers will endure burnout.
I had quite a few interesting run-ins with assistant principals.
At my first site, the assistant principal responsible for assigning me just nodded, waved, directed me to the teacher who would be supervising me.
The other assistant principal was a real piece of work, a lady who talked down to me from day one. She had very little time or patience for me, and to say the least no support. The first time that I met the woman, she had scheduled our meeting at the same time as a conference with her other staff. The lack of candor and respect was glaring.
The second time that I spoke with her, she grilled me about a special-ed student in one of my classes. She made it sound as if I was completely dedicated to ruining that young lady's chances. I was never informed, who was overworked and underpaid because they were both responsible for carrying out the work of three assistant principals that year.
"This is a special-education students. She has civil rights. If you do not respect those rights, you will be sued in federal court." She was very condescending, to say the least. None of the students really liked her, and she did not command a great deal of respect among faculty, either. I have a feeling that she stepped into the position as an attempt to make some extra money on the side, but when she actually plopped into the chair, she realized that the demands of the job were simply too much too handle.
The previous assistant principal was also a harried little man. He was nicer, though, but I did not have the chance to talk with him.
There was one assistant principal, Mr. S., who treated me with great respect. If he called me into his office, he still treated me like a colleague, not a child. I liked working with this man. He really cared about people. If students ever complained against me, he would come to my classroom and get my side of it. Apparently, he understood that calling a teacher down to the main office can be a very intimidating ordeal, especially for a first-year teacher who was just learning how to get by.
When so many students had dropped out of my class, that he had to close one of the sections, he was very diplomatic about the whole thing, although I know that I was the primary reason why the students were fleeing the elective in droves. Once, I took a student's history book away in my class, then held onto it. Mr. S. quietly walked in with a note, requesting the book. I told him that I had passed it along to the history teacher.
When another student claimed that I was losing her work, running to Mr. S with her complaints, he visited me during my conference period. He asked me what was going on, allowing me to sit the whole time. I had paper work, grades, all the other documentation a man could ask for. The young lady was crazy, failing her other classes, convinced that I was trying to ruin her academic career. He asked me what I was going to do. I had set up a parent conference, which her father did not attend. The whole mess was terrible. I wanted to mend bridges, if I could, but it simply never worked out. The young lady in question eventually passed the class — not without some arguing and conflict to follow. Once again, Mr. S. proved to be the consummate gentleman.
A family man who loved to be at home, Mr. S. ended up resigned his position after three quarters, so overwhelmed was he by the excessive demands from the higher level administration and the lack of cooperation and support from the teachers.