The boys were considering today... yes it will become part of the blog (as identified by Ron) that there is a particular time in your professional life when you feel that you can trust your professional judgment. Up to a certain age in your life you rely on the fear of being wrong or the group think part of collaborative work or the concern for job security to control our professional judgement.
Tom felt that when he reached his middle 40's he was able to make a decision for himself without outside concerns.
I think that this age is probably pretty much the same for all of us. We know that we are going to finish out our careers doing just about the same as what we were doing in our middle 40's and that we are pretty secure in making independent decisions regarding such.
The reason that we were talking about this is that one of our members made a school mistake. He posted a tee shirt with some student names on it. The reason for the tee shirt was to protest the decisions of a particular vice principal. It became a personal attack of this vice principal. Over one hundred of the 2,685 students arrived to school sporting this silk screen tee shirt. Apparently the rumor was that students were selling them for 13 dollars a throw. It attacked the hair style of one of the female vice principals and made dispersions of her sexuality.
Even though you may not like the decisions of the vp you cannot side with the students against her. It was this member's slip of judgment. He was called in an notes were taken by the HR person and the principal in regard to this incident, the hanging of the tee shirt in the room. He felt that it was a support for student free speech.
The principal made a all call that teachers were to send all students wearing the tee shirt to the offices. And that all teachers should submit a list of the students wearing the tee shirts. Lawyers were summoned from district office and no students were punished regarding the tee shirts. They were not allowed to wear them however for the rest of the day.
This would have devastated an under 40 year old teacher. This member was concerned but not devastated because he is over 40 and for most of his professional life lives very easily with his professional judgment... and sometimes there is a mistake.
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2 comments:
Most people over the age of 40 realize how immature it is to attack a person based on their hairstyle or gender style. Many men would know how personal hair or the lack therein is, and most teachers know how it feels to be mocked for choice of clothes, choice of hairstyle and general unhipness. No matter how you personally feel about an administrator, you just can't let students attack them personally. Just the opinion of an over-40 teacher.
(no matter if you agree with those students or not)
(or how badly you WANT to join in)
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