http://redhawkreport.com Frontier Regional School Newspaper Wed, 19 Dec 2012 15:24:37 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://redhawkreport.com/2012/12/19/the-partiality-of-educators/ http://redhawkreport.com/2012/12/19/the-partiality-of-educators/#comments Wed, 19 Dec 2012 15:01:28 +0000 Editor http://redhawkreport.com/?p=2307 By McLellan White
I have been at Frontier for a long time now and there has been one thing that I have noticed. The partiality of our high school instructors and educators. In September, I tasked myself to report on the reconfiguration of the middle school. It became abundantly clear to me that a family was being broken up. Many of the teachers I interviewed felt as if the groups that they had been a part of for years and years were being broken up. When I was on the Mercury and Gemini teams, there was a certain sense of community with all of the teachers. They often worked together, and sometimes, when there was a small class or a special event, they would push our classes together and we would work as one. I don’t see this in the high school.
I have noticed much infighting with high school teachers, whether they realize it or not. They often try to suppress it in front of students or try to keep it out of view, but any person who is observant can sense it. You can tell which teachers don’t like each other. You can see the rivalries between two educators. I’m not saying this is a bad thing; I mean, we are all human. No one said we have to like each other, but we do have to tolerate one another. We are all in this school together. No teacher comes to school only in search of a pay check, and even if they are, I have news for them. You are grossly underpaid and if you are in this for the wrong reasons, you won’t last. Teachers are here to educate the students and make us think; not to have spats with one another.
We all have our fights. We can’t let them go on to a point of no return. No one wants to be in an environment where people are not willing to work together. We should control ourselves. Sometimes if someone does something you don’t like, you don’t need to speak up. Just ignore it. Look the other way. Just because a teacher makes a decision about their curriculum that you don’t believe will benefit the educational process, maybe you should think about the students before you think about how mad you are at the teacher for not doing what you would do. We work all day long and a creative undertaking every now and then is not a bad thing. In fact, if anything is lacking in the classroom, it is creativity. Often, I think we mistaken creativity for the absence of rigor, rather than seeing them as complimentary. In the Lincoln film I attended with Ms. Walters and Mr. Di Donna, the character of Lincoln makes a good example of Congressman Stevens when he corrects him on the right use of a compass, according to Stevens, as a compass shows which was north is, all on needs to do is proceed north. The character of Lincoln responds to him by implying that knowing which way north is does not prepare one for the swamps and mountains in the way. “What good is knowing which way is north, if you find yourself entrenched in a swamp?” We want the next generation of citizens to do well and if we work together as one, we can accomplish this.

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