Friday, January 03, 2014

The myth of the hero superintendent

The headline for this post is not referring to Joplin R-8 Superintendent C. J. Huff in any way. That myth has been completely shattered over the past few months.

Instead, it refers to a Texas Monthly report on how we are getting away from the idea that there are "miracle" superintendents like Michelle Rhee who can come in and work wonders with a school district with a top-down philosophy, running roughshod over teachers, staff, and everyone else involved in the educational process.

Education takes place when there is a team attitude, not when top-level administrators claim there is a team and use terror to keep all dissension quieted, or when they throw away even the pretense that there is a team concept involved.




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why are you so against administration? Do you mean superintendents and district admin or principals? If you are refering to principals then I suggest you take that role on for about 3 days. I bet you would see that we are teachers to and not against teachers. Not all teachers are angels either. Have you walked classrooms where someone is not really teaching but sitting on their butt giving kids busy work. Its teachers like you with a negative aggressive "we are the only ones who work and care" attitude that keep schools from growing which makes you a hypocrite.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 5:58, you are right; not all administrators are bad. Many principals work very hard to support the teachers because they want what is best for the kids. I don't think Mr. Turner would like to be associated with those teachers planted firmly at their desks while students are doing mindless worksheets and/or twiddling their thumbs. In fact, the good principals don't accept that and encourage and inspire their teachers to encourage and inspire their students. I do think that Mr. Turner and other R8 employees, both former and current, know that this is not the way things have been in R8 land for a very long time. When that's been the case, the principal has been run off and replaced with one of the very mean-spirited and inexperienced former TLCs. That is a piece of why R8 schools are in such bad shape. Current administration and board have destroyed all the good that had been built. I'm afraid it will be a long road back and it won't happen without getting rid of a load of admin.