Principals' Memo: Stop All of That Ridiculous Teaching

A few weeks ago, we received notice that there would be an optional assembly honoring some companies who have chosen to support our school. Let's call this the "Friends of Public Schools" program. Companies choose a school to support, and the employees give of their time and/or money to assist the school.

Optional assemblies are sometimes held to showcase the arts, and teachers sign up to bring their classes -- or not. Time passed, and we received a reminder a few days before the assembly, with a note that not very many teachers had signed up. The day of the assembly came. Right after the assembly ended, we received the following email from our principal:

"Thank you to the 12 teachers who took thirty minutes out of their schedule today to support the [Friends of Schools] program. We adopted ... new partners today and we had an extremely small audience to be receptive to the people who are willing to give of themselves for the betterment of [our school]. I was embarrassed by the lack of participation. We probably had no more than 150 students in the audience. I don’t want to receive a lot of emails or reasons why you could not attend. This has been announced and on the calendar for over a month. I just want people to understand that we must do our part to nurture these relationships. When we have our hand out for favors, it is important to understand how important it was to have a nice crowd at today’s assembly."

Hmmm. Snide tone. Lack of respect for our professional decisions. Casting aspersions widely. Confusion as to what "optional" means. Unwarranted assumption that the Friends give a shit who attends the assembly. Childlike, unnecessary embarrassment, when any sane adult would simply have said, "Our teachers are so busy today, but we did want to thank you." Failure to take blame for not, say, having a reception before or after school instead (bring food; teachers will come). Disavowal of rights of accused to speak in their own defense. Astonishing oversight of important facts; i.e., AP tests begin in two days. Petulant insistence that we "choose" to do something that she could easily have made mandatory.

Oh, and later that day we received word that she has signed us up for the Ropes course.

I polled the teachers in my department. One had been up until 3 that morning putting together a curriculum package for some high mucky-muck in the district, and had delivered said curriculum to the district office , on deadline, at 7:30 that morning. Another opted to attend the assembly, and informed us that attendees included her, and every coach in the building. She felt rather slimy after reading the memo, and wished she hadn't gone. I didn't go because that particular class of students is noisy, crowded, and behind the others. It wouldn't have been the end of the world to miss the time, but it would have been a very bad decision. Also, I reckon, if I had chosen to take time out of class for any other non-academic reason, she could rightly have reprimanded me.

And, let's be real. Even students eager to get out of class rolled their eyes at the topic of this assembly.

A new teacher looked at me this afternoon and said, "I'm getting the idea now. It doesn't matter if we teach or not. It's only what we are seen to be doing for PR reasons."

Apparently.