Meeting

One of my frustrations with my colleagues, my fellow teachers, is our eagerness to find external sources for our failures-- I've just finished a meeting with a fellow from "downtown", who was here to basically bust our chops for our poor attendance rate. He made some good points (including a few of my traditions resonant points, like "if you don't LOVE teaching, GET OUT!") and he made a couple of challenging and provocative comments, most of which were hard-edged but well-plqced (mostly, that it's part of our job to motivate students to be here.)

One of our faculty commented on the outrageous foul-ups related to the new district-wide student tracking system. She challenged the district to pwn up to the problems that have resulted from the implementation of this new system, and to apoligize for it. A fair request, I think. Unfortunately, our "downtown" man brushed it off. Far worse, our faculty by and large took that oppurtunity to write off everything he had said, and lay all the blame for poor attendance on "things beyond our control." Because it's easier to say, "I can't reach these kids" than to try to reach them.

A couple of times in this meeting, especially as my colleagues were speaking out, I came back to my friend John's persistent comment: there are two kinds of energy that we rountinely encounter: heat and light. In any conversation, we are capable of contributing either: we can illuminate the subject with our comments, or we can inflame the conversation. It's rare that both will result in the outcome one desires.