My Colleagues

One of the Biology teachers has a new student teacher to supervise. He is older and seems to be competent–only time will tell. At the department meeting this week we discussed the budget for next year. The teachers were asked to have their budget requests ready by January 31st. I will be shocked if I have all of them are on time. Some of the worst offenders of getting their stuff in on time are the same teachers who are excessively unforgiving of students who are guilty of the same thing. One in particular almost never gets any department work in on time, but will not accept late work from students–not even for a reduced grade. I wonder if that person realizes what a hypocrite they are? Probably not.

About 12 years ago there was a teacher in my department who made a student take an exam, even though the student reported a family emergency the night before. Her grandmother had passed away in hospice about 11:00pm and the family was at her bedside all evening. The girl asked for an extension so she could prepare, but the request was denied. I expressed my displeasure with the teacher’s decision the next day when I found out about it from a guidance counselor. The teacher refused to change the grade saying that she had no way to determine, at the time, if the story was true or not. “Maybe her grandmother did die last evening, maybe she didn't” she said "How could I have been sure that she was telling the truth?” Adding next, “If I gave her an extension and later found out she lied I would look like a fool ” and “Would you just accept a story like that, without even a note from the mother?” She said all this while looking at me like I was a naive fool, apparently unaware of the old “dead grandmother” scam that she could see a mile away. I explained that she should have accepted the excuse, checking the story later. If the girl lied she would get an F on the exam for dishonesty. I told the teacher that by not accepting the story she looked like an insensitive bitch and had dammaged her relationship with the whole class, who all knew the story was true. That teacher is no longer with us–she lasted only a year before being gently pushed out.

Over the years I have taught with probably 200 or more colleagues. The year I was hired, four other new teachers began as well. Another Science teacher, a Librarian, a Home-Ec teacher, and a Spanish teacher. Of those, I am the only one still here and only one other is still in teaching that I know of. The reason I mention this is that the school is having our 50th anniversary next year and I am on a committee to find and contact former faculty for a big reunion. As I looked over the list of names at our first meeting I could not help remembering many of them, some more fondly than others.

There are three former female teachers who I dated before I met my wife; in the last 30 years I have only seen one fo them. There are almost two dozen former department colleagues, other science teachers, who spent some time here and then moved on. Some of them were truly outstanding educators; knowledgeable, inspiring, and committed. Some were decidedly average, not making a lasting impression on me. Some were truly awful, their departure a great relief to me as department chairman. Unfortunately, I have never been good at confronting my staff with their teaching inadequacies.

I could spend the next 50 posts writhing something about each one of them, but I think I will wait until the actual reunion and write about the ones that showed up–if, of course, I am still writing my blog by then.