Daydreamin'

Driving home the other day after a particularly long tiring day I started to think about what I would like to do if I could just take off from work for a really indefinite period. Of course, like most people I think how it would be great to hop a plane to some neat obscure destination or find a beach to relax on. But that's when reality sets in. When have I EVER wanted to sit on a beach longer than about an hour? And usually I enjoy having coffee and muffins on the beach with my hubby when the sun is just coming up, or relaxing with some fried conch and a lemonade when the sun is going down...but middle of the day when it's sizzling hot? No, I have to be brutally honest with myself at least. If I could take off of work for a month or so with no obligations to meet I think I would be estatically happy to hole up on the geneology floor of the downtown library and delve into the family research. As part of this, I would immerse myself in history books that record the background diorama of my family's past and make lots of charts and notebooks to organize everything in my mind. I want to uncover the nuggets of anecdotes about those ancestors whose names hide the secrets of my past. They sound like a story waiting to be told: Colbert, Thomas, Hallie Llewellyn. It's funny, I never realized what a geek I was until now. Don't try to dissuade me! I once carefully returned the first volume of the Lives of the Queens of England by Agnes Strickland to the shelf where I found it because I wanted to wait until there would be a time in my life when I could really savor it, wallow in it if you will. Well, that time hasn't arrived yet and I put that book on the shelf in '76.
I think my family is starting to get wise to my geek leanings. This year for my birthday, Christmas and other assorted celebrations I received an antique sugar mold (who else would have even known what it WAS?), and antique bakery bread rising platform, and antique silver hand mirror and three different antique irons. Oh yes, and my sons gave me a Williamsburg replica pottery pitcher (Thanks Mark and Laura!) and an antique biscuit break (Thanks Patrick!). I get great warm feelings just looking at them and imagining how they were used. One of the real joys was an absolutely fabulous 19th century wood steamer trunk. My wonderful husband gave me that. I've put all my geneaology research in it. It seems to be the right place. Last summer I spent a good deal of time researching the geneaology and reluctantly put it away when school started.
Anyway, I hope I live long enough to really wallow in my history fetish when I finally have the time to really do it. I indulge myself in an interesting book periodically between grading papers and other responsibilities. I'm concurrently reading The Real Lincoln on the downstairs and 1000 Years Over a Hot Stove on the bedside table. Jeesh, what a geek! And I used to be really cool...really.

Damage control

Lately I've been reminding myself more and more frequently that things usually work out over time and as a quasi-leader of the teachers on my hall I have an obligation to remain objective, calm and not perpetuate any panic or hostility that may arise. I also have to remind myself not to get the urge to run screaming into the sunset myself. Within the past two weeks two teachers have stated their intent to resign at the end of the year. The primary reason for their decision is boiled down to an administration that wants to micro-manage their grading policies and will do anything to keep a disgruntled parent happy. Although both of these teachers are new to the school they are experienced teachers and have high standards for students to achieve. Not unreasonably high standards, mind you. Both of them have had to drop grades, allow zero grades to be made up and basically had all of their authority and credibility with both parents and students pulled out from under them. This has had a chilling and demoralizing effect on the other teachers. At least four other teachers have privately told me that they will seek transfers at the end of the year. Although I haven't really had the situation over grades that they have had, I have had my credibility with students pretty well dented by an administrator who wanted to over-ride me and judge individual situations on a case by case basis. Even students can quickly realize that maybe it's their lucky day, or maybe it's not depending on the administrators current level of tension.
I wonder that he cannot seem to see where this will lead...teachers who have decided to do grade inflation rather than have to go toe-to-toe to defend an assignment rubric or a discipline decision. Students and parents who will routinely circumvent the teacher in hopes of a more favorable decision from the administration will begin to clog the office and slow down the really necessary administrative tasks. My biggest fear is that we will have created an environment where there are no boundaries that are dependable and the perception will become the biggest squealer will get the grease. Changing and dropping grades to suit one parent whose little darling didn't quite make the grade will be categorically unfair to others who through deligent effort achieved an earned success. Even worse, those who don't know how to go about makeing a fuss will lose out on the benefits enjoyed by those with the pushy parents.
I wish parents weren't so myopic. They seem to only be able to see the immediate frustration or disappointment of their child and their knee-jerk response is to do anything to fix it. They seem incapable of seeing the bigger picture...the long term goal of allowing children to make mistakes, suffer consequences and learn from them. What do they think they are teaching a child when they bully the teacher into giving the child an undeserved grade?
I'm not quite sure how to mitigate the growing storm.