The end of October -- the grades are turned in. The pressure is off. I finally have time to sit and reflect.In a number of ways this semester has been easier than other semesters. The administration has left me completely alone. I think the letter that I wrote to the school board made its way into the hands of the principal and some of the assistant principals. As soon as my second period senior level English class reached 40 students, an AP showed up with a list of students to siphon off to another room and another teacher. That's never happened before, and I could tell that she resented doing it. The split up was not a random selection. Looking at the way she divided things up, it was apparent that she wanted to stick me with some of the worst of the group. This particular AP is notorious for backhanded passive aggressive tactics. Out of the 20 or so that were left with me only about half of them were genuine students in any sense of the word. A few of them fell by the wayside immediately. I had about 17 on the roll. This was much less paperwork. I was thrilled.
I had a couple of interviews this semester.
One was at a high school in the San Fernando valley. I was impressed with the principal there. In addition to his duties as principal, he taught an English class and made the comment that he thought that every administrator should be doing something like that. He proceeded to postulate about what some of the problems at Huntington Park high school might be -- little motivation, students aiming for that bare minimum D-.It was like a breath of fresh, air and I was impressed. I don't think I impressed him very much when I mentioned that I had taken the CLAD test, but refused to process my CLAD certificate because I was told that I would be stuck with nothing but “sheltered” classes which at Huntington Park high school means behavior problems as well as genuine English language learners. He countered what I had to say with a justification for putting low achievers into sheltered classes, something about the Oakland school District and Ebonics. At that point it was becoming obvious to me that he was looking for someone to come in and work miracles with the lowest of the low level students. I don't come across as much of the miracle worker. It didn't surprise me to hear him say, “Well , we have several other people to interview. We’ll be in touch.” I never heard from him again.
I had another interview at a continuation high school in the San Fernando Valley. I've done substitute work at continuation high schools before, mostly in Alhambra and Temple City. I know how they work. Each of the students that is thrown into a continuation high school has an individualized program developed for them, using textbooks and remedial worksheets that have answer keys. In some cases there are computer programs to help them out, not at this particular school, but this is still LA Unified. The principal here was not impressive. She seemed like a typical middle-aged affirmative action ladder-climber whose qualifications outside of the color of her skin were questionable. Sometimes continuation high schools can be enormously successful, especially in cases where the primary obstacle to academic achievement is social distraction. I would say that most of my seniors at Huntington Park High School need some kind of individualized program, but the money isn’t there and so the game-playing continues.
I blew the interview though. I was able to talk to a group of students there and the principal overheard the conversation. I told them about our air-conditioning problems at Huntington Park, and how I finally called the fire department on one hot August afternoon when all administration members were busy with a “meeting.” Before I left the campus of this continuation high school the principal said, “Well, we have several other people to interview.” I could've kicked myself. At least she called and left a message on my answering machine telling me that she decided not to offer me the position.
When all of the politically correct “nice-sounding” talk is placed aside, what principals and other administrators are really looking for in a teacher is a docile puppy dog, someone who will do tricks on command, get kicked in the head and stay loyal, take the blame when it’s convenient, and pull heavy loads without a question or complaint. Successful teaching is way down on the priority list. In LA Unified, administrators love new teachers. They have no experience and few opinions. New teachers emotionally whip themselves for problems they encounter, instead of critically examining the situations in which they find themselves. They have little self-confidence. They become convenient scapegoats with a ready-made solution. -- Just throw expensive in-services at them. Yeah, that's it! Our teachers just need more training.
I failed about 60% of the students in my two senior level classes this semester. That’s higher than it’s been in the past. The good news is that these students knew it was coming and as far as I know, no one has any intention of raising a fuss about it. That’s really the only thing that our principal cares about anyway. As one fellow English teacher so candidly put it to me, “Well, Keller, I hope you learned something from your experiences last semester. When it comes to disputes with parents, you CANNOT win in LA Unified. If you want to stay employed you have to throw all of your principles out the window and then bend over and grease up.” There is some truth in her appraisal, albeit just a tad exaggerated.
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