"The Game"

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Home : 2001 : July : 6

"The Game"
By Lydia

I agree with you, Colleen. It's such a game in the schools with parents and the principal. You just have to learn how to play it. I complained to one of my experienced colleagues about the way I was treated by my principal,
and her response was that the parents are probably coming down hard on the principal. So, I guess it all runs downhill.
I've been teaching for eight years now and have taught in three different schools. I had one principal who was a weak principal. He picked on me to make himself look better, it seems. He would come into my room at any odd time and document in writing what

was taking place in the room. I had a classroom full of problem children that year, and I felt that his comments were purposely stinging. I am sure that his commentaries went into my personnel file to explain away the "bad" teacher to save his own neck. I didn't finish working the entire year at this school. I got fed up and quit. Before I left, I complained to the Assistant Superintendent at a conference. Several others went forward and did the same. The principal was demoted and sent to another school in the district as an assistant principal.

Another year--I've had it rough!!--I had a rookie principal who was trying to run a school of almost 900 kids. I realized how hard he was trying to do his job; however, he stabbed me in the back, lied, and stepped all over me to keep his own neck intact. He did not return to the school the following year.