By Tracey
I was sitting in a professional development training with my principal, learning about one of those 90/90/90 schools. You've heard of them: 90% of the students receive free or reduced lunch, 90% of the students are from ethnic minorities, and 90% are passing state tests. This one, like all of them was also very impressive. The video we watched featured the principal and her approach to turning the school around and making it a
success. They interviewed the
teachers and showed their collaborative approach to improving instruction based
on student data. My principal
wants desperately to achieve the third 90 at my school. She raised her hand and asked, “I want
to know how many of the teachers did the principal hire? And how many did she inherit?” My mouth dropped like they did in
cartoons where the cartoon character had to peel his jaw off the ground and
hold it in place to make it look normal.
I turned to my principal, holding my jaw in place, and we shared an
awkward laugh because she had just revealed to me what I had long
suspected. I knew what she meant
by “inherited” and I knew which teachers she felt were slowing her down. I was pretty sure I wasn’t one of them,
even though she “inherited” me.
I’m not sure if it’s
because I’m getting older, but I’m noticing it much more these days, this idea
that younger teachers are somehow better, more desirable teachers and older teachers are
obstacles in the way. I think at
13 years of teaching, on just barely the right side of 40, I’m still in the
middle. But, it won’t be long
before that changes. I’m seeing
this much more in the media, as the nation examines how to evaluate teachers. And I’m seeing it more in my own
experiences at my school.
One of the “inherited”
teachers who I’ve taught with since day one and can attribute to much of my
learning, growth, and inspiration revealed to me how down she felt about
herself as a teacher. This is the first time where she’s felt unsupported and
unappreciated by administration.
This is a teacher who, after 33 years of teaching, still has so much
energy and enthusiasm, she runs everywhere. Her former students all come back to visit and invite her to
graduations. Her students love her
because she makes such a difference in their lives. She is someone who I’ve always strived to be like, and to
hear her admit that she no longer felt she was in the principal’s favor was
alarming to me.
I have another friend who
teaches science in high school. We swap stories, comparing her district with
mine, and her school environment with my school environment. With her newly received National
Board Certificate and eight years of teaching under her belt, she is so
frustrated with education policy, she’s decided to quit and go back to school to
teach at the university level. She believes teachers are like a carton of milk;
they both have expiration dates.
Every time I see her, I feel the scrutinizing eyes of the careful
shopper, checking for my expiration date.
Is it the assumption that
one is moldable, able to train and turn into the kind of teacher you want on
your staff, and the other is already molded, (Not to be confused with moldy.) one who was trained to be a certain kind of teacher on someone else's staff? Is it not valuable to have people with experience and knowledge in education and instruction on your team? I know in my experience, I’m never the
same teacher I was a year ago.
Each year is a different year for me as I change, adapt, and grow
professionally.
Let’s remember that a good
teacher is about instruction and moving people- inspiring people to change and
grow and wonder. The age of the
teacher should not be a part of the equation. Neither should their questioning of education
policy and its influence on the classroom. Their craft should be the focus of our
judgment.
Last week, our nearly 60-year-old, "inherited" teacher won the Teacher of the Year award for our district. Inherited, molded, older, and experienced, we appreciate you.
It seems that while what the principal asked was a valid question, the timing and public nature of it could have been very off-putting. The teachers to whom she was refering were probably thinking, “Oh, she’s not talking about me (or they weren’t listening),” while the conscientious, appreciated teachers probably all felt an arrow in the heart. We’re having similar growing pains at our school right now, and while I have more than a decade on you, Tracey, I completely empathize.
I think this story tells more about your principal’s confidence in her own leadership ability than anything else. It takes a lot more leadership to come into a school and lead what’s already there than it does to lead a group of brand-new teachers who’ll do anything for a job. The question, of course, concerns sustainability. At some point, the school is going to have to stand on it’s own; the bold, charismatic principal having moved up to district administration or onto another school. Then those “new hires” will be the “inherited has-beens” for the next principal. That’s why I far prefer steady, wide-spread, systematic change at the district level than flash-in-pan one-offs like the school you saw in the video. Of course, they don’t make videos about slow, systainable growth, do they?
That was gutsy of the principal, but I can see her perspective. When I look at the teachers hired by given principal, I certainly see connections, for better or worse.
It is often the jaw-drop-inspiring statements which need to be said, even if they do reveal an ugly reality. I think that you, since you are willing to change from year to year, are the kind of “inherited” teacher that they appreciate inheriting. However, they also inherit the teachers that the previous principal should have put on a plan of improvement or bounced out completely. Those teachers are there too, and they’re the real elephant in the room…