Ten Commandments of Teaching

TEN COMMANDMENTS OF TEACHING

1. Never, never let them smell fear.
2. Remember, fairness is an abstract concept.
3. No matter how hard you try--it is never enough.
4. Play both sides against the middle to survive.
5. If an administrator promises you something, something will change his mind.
6. Be true to yourself, your own conscience, your own code. No one else's will do.
7. Change is constant.
8. Learn to swim. You can only tread water so long.
9. Have an escape route "mapped out" well in advance.
10. Do not trust anyone.

When a teacher finds himself in trouble with an administrator, the only way to extricate himself is to never let the enemy know he is scared. School personnel are like sharks. If they smell blood, you're a "goner" and there is NO HELP for you. Military tacticians tell us that a good offense is a good defense. Football coaches tell us the same thing. If it works for them, it should work for us.

Fairness is an abstract idea that used to really exist--long before states started telling schools what they had to and could not teach. Teachers knew what to teach--what would get them in trouble and what wouldn't. We knew what SHOULD be taught. We did teach it. But along came the state legislatures who said that we had to achieve a certain test score to remain. We sign an affidavit saying that we will give up our teaching credentials if we are caught cheating on the achievement tests. I has as much faith in that happening as a person in a pawn shop checking that he is an escaped felon or a sick individual telling the Red Cross, "Do not take my blood." REALLY!!! Fairness, in the past, gave us hope that our best would really amount to something. We now now that that is a farce. Since fairness is an abstract concept it cannot be tested; and if it cannot be tested, we do not want it.

more to follow