Re: Principals as Bullies

Lynde

Posted on 12/30/10

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Although I've been very fortunate to have worked with awesome
principals so far (knock on wood), I have teacher-friends all
over the country who have not been so lucky.

My statement: When a teacher leaves the classroom, it is no
longer a "classroom"--it's just a room. Take a teacher out of
the classroom, and you no longer have a classroom. In which
case, you no longer have a need for a principal, a vice
principal, or a superintendent. It's long past time when
these folks need to learn what education is all about--it's
the meaningful dialogue between student and teacher. What it
is NOT about is egos (anybody's), trappings of puffed up self-
importance, bullying, or mean-spiritness.

On 9/25/10, Anthony Fraguzzi wrote:
> I have been working in the field of education since 1970;
> and I have come to believe that one of the main obstacles
> to student achievement and academic success is the middle
> manager known to us as - The Principal.
> It is he or she who sustains poor teaching by failing to
> use the necessary administrative tools to help flagging
> teachers or to remove them, if necessary.
> It is he or she who too often uses the principal's position
> of power to humiliate and/or intimidate teachers for
> reasons that are often non-educational.
> It is he or she who often sets the tone in the school
> building which can either contribute to a warm and
> effective learning atmosphere or a cold and hostile
> enviroment.
> Any teacher can easily supply a half-dozen examples of both
> types of principals.
> My own experience has been that the principal too often
> allows his or her personal politics of power to interfere
> with the true mission of the educational system.
> Principals, I believe, are given a good deal of power that
> is too often abused in the hands of immature, egotistic
> personalities. In the name of 'respect to the office' too
> many individuals ascribe to themselves the trappings of
> power which alarmingly resemble that of minor potentates or
> miniture monarchs.
> The principal should be a collaborator and facilitator with
> and for the teacher - who is, afterall, the professional
> who has day-to-day, hour-to-hour contact with the learner.
> More respect for teachers and less for the middle-managers
> would go a long way into resolving some of our educational
> shortcomings.
> Anthony Fraguzzi

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