Today in History

Today my wife is retiring as an elementary school teacher after 39 years (32 in the same district). As I have thought about her career there are some contrasts that are important. During her career she has always chosen to work in districts where a large number of children are disadvantaged. At a couple of points in her career, she had the opportunity to either move out of that environment and into a more wealthy district or into administration - but she chose to stay with the children who needed her.

The district she is retiring from is an interesting one. It is in an area of our region that has a lot of immigrants. Thus, over the years she has seen waves of people coming into the district until they get enough resources to move to a better area. It is also a group of relatively low performing schools. The district has been plagued with low test scores and thus over the last couple of years made some changes which are more bureaucratic than helpful. The changes often overlooked truly creative teaching for a standardization that is mind-numbing for both the teachers and the students. No wonder that scores are not improving.

This year her principal was replaced with a young woman who has no teaching experience. She has the "multi-culti" language down pat. She also can babble on about leadership. The problem is that she seems to demonstrate little understanding about the real needs of children or of the genuine requirement for all leaders to inspire. The best principals I have noticed over time become the school - they are constantly visible. This amateur thinks that leadership comes from directives and meetings.

At the beginning of the school year my wife's district offered a retirement incentive and she took it in a flash. The current environment which is conditioned by the district's formulaic approach to achievement and the inexperienced principal gave her the incentive to leave the kids she loved.

That comes to my final point. There is a distinction that I like a lot between bureaucrats and professionals. Bureaucrats try to do things right, professionals try to do the right thing - my wife is a great example of a professional.