This line from a previous post deserves to be spotlighted.

“At least, they did not blame me, not after the first month anyway.”

That month was a doozy, though. Rocky start does not begin to describe the year of identical tests and quizzes, the year when my students saw almost nothing except material set four years above those students’ average academic operating levels. How about “Mutiny in the Bilingual Class” as a title for September? Not to mention August and part of October.

My students took awhile to understand that the replacement of their beloved principal with the Hired Gun from Texas came with more changes than just the body in the principal’s office. Suddenly, they had been put on a schedule filled with math they had never seen before, a schedule that quickly began culminating in weekly quizzes they could not understand. Suddenly, unit tests that no bilingual student ever passed became a regular feature of the year’s instruction, along with MAP and AIMSWEB benchmark tests.

Most years teachers get a honeymoon period, a few weeks of exceptionally good behavior and attention as students settle into their new classes after the summer break. The Year of Endless Incomprehensible Quizzes had no such honeymoon, however. My students turned angry quickly. Behavior became challenging almost from the start. They blamed me.

I was the teacher. I was the person at the head of the class. I was the person handing out the quizzes. They assumed I must have some control of my job and, if so, they concluded I must be an especially mean person. What do thirteen-year-old kids do when they think someone is being mean to them? They act mean back. They were often snotty, rude and overtly disrespectful during those first few weeks.  I kept having to manage behaviors that I secretly understood. I’d have acted out, too, in their place.

As the year wore on, I got my class back. By October, we were mostly a team working together. By October, they had figured out that I had almost no control over what was happening and that I could not refuse to give them all those crazy tests and quizzes.. By October, they were clear that I was doing my damndest to help them out despite regular interventions by the Assistant Principal and others. By October, they understood that I wanted to be their advocate, but I was trapped. No one was listening to me.

Whatever I said, all I would hear back was, “No excuses!”

Eduhonesty: I miss teaching and the kids, but I am so, so, so glad I retired.

And while I promise readers I would never personally take the path of violence, if a couple of former administrators stepped out into the road in front of oncoming traffic, I would not waste a single minute mourning them. I’m not sure the universe would be a better place without them, but I’m not sure it would be a worse one either.

People that stupid should never be given control of other people’s lives.