The Education Wars: How Did My Principal Become My Adversary?

Let me count the ways. Yours truly had two rotten ones in a row. I never had anybody in all my years in the labor force be worse than those two, and there were some doozies.

This teacher might have been a little slow on the uptake about her principal. In this instance, she has to reapply for her job, which of course is just an excuse for principals to get rid of expensive teachers in favor of the cheapo bimbos:

You lost me today. You lost me with the fear- based rhetoric in your interview with the Magnet Chronicles. And it’s hard to lose me. Just ask some teachers who knew I supported the last principal when most others did not. So I don’t say that lightly. Losing me is really hard to do-- but you did it. And this is actually hard for me to write because you were very compassionate and supportive when my father died, and I really appreciated that. It meant a lot to me. It shows that you have empathy and understanding, which is why your words in the paper came as somewhat of a shock.

I was shocked by the obvious disrespect you showed to veteran teachers in the interview as if we can just be replaced by new "people" without missing a beat. I recognized your arguments immediately as fear-based rather than persuasive and inclusionary. You see that's what a good education does for you- it makes you a critical thinker.

Let me back up. I think of a principal as someone who supports the profession of teaching instead of obstructing it, someone who supports good teaching instead of pointing out that one in a million case of the "charmer teacher" who fails 92% of their students; someone who inspires using their background, experience and philosophy instead of doing the bidding of some higher up bureaucrats for the district because maybe you have been promised something if you just tolerate Fremont for the next three years.

You started off pretty strong. Many teachers felt you respected them more than the last principal and that is a positive thing. But then Cortines showed up and made his big announcement. I think most teachers were still in your corner for the next few weeks, but then the shock wore off and the actual critical thinking began. I know one question I had that I never asked you is, "What did you know and when did you know it?" Did you always know from the day you set foot on this campus-- a campus that obviously means quite a different thing to you than it does to me--that this would happen?

Another teacher writes about the same thing here.