Wednesday, June 05, 2019

DOE in Deep Denial over Forest Hills Principal

I shouldn't be surprised when the NYC Department of Education trades in outrageous lies. I mean, that's more or less their stock in trade. Their "legal" department exists only to tell principals to do Any Damn Thing they please. Contract? They likely as not have never read it. I have never once seen DOE legal on the right side of an argument with UFT.

Here's the latest DOE assertion:

DOE officials insisted Monday that Sherman’s extraction was not prompted by any official findings or negative conclusions about his performance.

Surely it's just a coincidence that this occurred exactly one school day before a planned protest outside the school. I happen to know that Forest Hills UFT members invited the press, This denial goes beyond pants on fire and rivals Donald Trump levels. Maybe the DOE expects us to believe that they swapped out the superintendent just for laughs. Maybe they expect us to believe they installed a shadow principal just because they had nothing better to do that day.

I'n glad I'm not a DOE spokesperson. I hope Carranza fires this one, and any others left over from Bloomberg. I guess saving face is a political thing. Nonetheless, it sets a bad example. When I screw up, as I do from time to time, or more, my go to remark is, "I'm sorry." There are variations, like saying I hope it won't happen again, or it will never happen again, but it's not a weakness to recognize fault in yourself and try to correct it. It's a sign you're listening, you're learning, and you're alive. I think Jack Nicholson said, "If you aren't learning, you're dead."

Well, if you're refusing to learn, you aren't necessarily dead. But you aren't exactly moving forward either. I'd argue this sort of thinking is left over from Bloomberg. You remember Bloomberg, don't you? When the scores went up, he was a genius and it was absolute proof his brand of reforminess was the bestest ever. When they went down, it was proof that teachers sucked, that there should be no tenure, and that there should be no union. Better that everyone should place their fate into Bloomberg's fat little fingers and hope for the best.

It's kind of ironic, though, that our business is setting an example. These are the people who nail teachers to the wall over nothing. These are the people who create Leadership Academies that produce people like principal Ben Sherman. I guess when you've peppered people of that persuasion absolutely everywhere, you might be a little defensive when it turns out none of them know how to get along with anyone else. Of course, they're likely as not trained to be like that.

It's funny, because that's not a route to success as teachers. I have a student with pink hair who comes late a lot. When she first started doing that, I gave her a hard time. She reacted badly. I went to another one of her classes and pulled her out. She told me that her mother drove her to school and was perpetually late. She claimed she herself was ready on time every day. I believed her for some reason.

Now I'm not saying that principals ought to let us come in late every day. We aren't kids and we aren't depending on our mothers for transport (I hope). But we do have issues, and going to work would be so much easier if our bosses supported us, rather than making hilarious clever remarks when we complain, say, that students are smoking pot all over the building. Maybe secretaries are more comfortable if you close the bathroom door so they don't have to watch you urinate. Maybe it's not the very best to make cutesy remarks about women's appearance. I don't know. I guess they don't teach that sort of thing in the Leadership Academy.

But the DOE screwed up. It's a shame the people ostensibly in charge of education in the largest school district in the country can't bring themselves to admit their errors.  I'm just glad they aren't in my classes.
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