We're Watching You...

Yeah, yeah, I know fair is not always equal.  I've said it to my kids, to staff, even to my own students and lived it too, but we are still watching you.

I write this blog post tonight not to start a war or offend anyone, just to start a conversation after we reflect upon our own practices.  Every blog post I write is my way of reflecting from my own point of view, whether it be right or wrong, well that's up to you, but it's still my opinion.

In the personality colors test, I came out yellow first, then blue secondary.  Meaning, I like order, routine, following rules, structure...the yellow side of me.  Then there's the blue side of me, who cares about your feelings, what you think, wants to people please, believe the best in others and wants to encourage you.

I've experienced some situations where I felt slighted, unfairly treated, or left out, because favoritism came into play from others.  And I don't feel comfortable calling out those folks in any form.  I move far away from controversy, no matter who or what it is, even if this post suggests otherwise.  But what do you do then to address the situation?  I honestly don't have a solution to this, just wanted to write this to help us all think and reflect.  Are you playing favorites?  Do rules, policies, laws only apply to certain people and bend for others or get completely set aside?  And whether you do this consciously or unconsciously, know that if you do this, others see it, experience it, feel hurt by it, because we're watching you.

Link for pic

When I started in education, my Mother in Law warned me about the politics of education, of this very thing, but I refused to believe.  However, having lived through some of these things, and yes, we live THROUGH them, not in them, it's not fun.  It shapes who we are, who we trust, what connections we choose to make, even where we choose to teach or work.  The very act of teaching has got to be the hardest job on the planet, no matter if you are at a well to do school or a very needy school, so then why would any leader choose to let politics, favoritism, whatever you call this enter into our schools.  We are ALL equal, so treat us fairly.  A leader is not a leader if there's no one following behind them.  Treat us with integrity, honesty, transparency, and without favoritism.  When you do this, you build a culture of teachers who feel valued, connected, supported, care about their work, and want to stay around for many years.  When you don't it tears down the climate of any staff faster than anything I know, and you have rapid turnover and folks who just don't care about their work.  The crazy thing to me, is that following the same set of rules, policies, and laws for all staff is something that costs you zero dollars, so it's FREE to build up your campus, staff, and students.

Here's an article for teachers to ponder upon: "Playing Favorites?"

And an article for bosses to ponder: "How do Deal With Favoritism in the Office"

And here's a book I found through Google about Stepping Into Administration: How to Succeed in Making the Move, which I will be purchasing that has some valuable info about this topic too.