Brian Cohen
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Trust and Leadership

8/30/2011

3 Comments

 
There was a time when We, The People trusted our leaders. There was also a time when Our Leaders had earned our trust.

Now it seems like trust is taken for granted and leadership is taken for $.

I have spent the last few days at my school preparing my room to be inundated with 150 kids next Tuesday and I have to say I am excited - and a bit nervous - to meet them. Yet, the fact that some classrooms will be empty of teachers on September 6 is baffling - especially when there are still over 700 recently-laid-off teachers ready, willing, and able to step in.

Moreover, in a situation where one superintendent is ousted only to find out that another is attending a vacation in the two weeks prior to school starting, it seems like our leaders are abandoning ship (I don't care how far in advance the vacation was planned - if I were to be that situation, I would cancel it to make sure I had full teacher rosters on the fist day of school).

Why is it so hard to find and maintain good leaders?

Over the past three years of my interactions with teachers across the School District I have been called many things: idealistic, optimistic, unrealistic, and more. It is hard for me to take part in those conversations because I don't really care how I'm labeled - I am not going to change. 


I demand good leaders. I demand people who recognize good leadership when it comes along. I demand that leaders earn our trust an keep earning our trust after they are in place. If I've learned anything from the past few months of Dr. Ackerman's decline it is that she should have paid more attention to what the nay-sayers were saying and try to understand where they were coming from.

I demand that I become a good leader, regardless if I ever hold the position of one. I demand that others check on me from time to time and remind me of what it is like to be one. I demand of my students to be good leaders as well. And most of all I demand that people would stop using my idealism as an excuse to rationalize their jaded viewpoints. 

If we can't believe in each other, we can't trust each other. If we can't trust each other, we can't share a vision. And if we can't share a vision, our leaders are meaningless. Let us rebuild the trust that once existed in Philadelphia's history: one student at a time.
3 Comments
drichardson017
8/30/2011 11:55:44 pm

I completely agree. Students/Families/Teachers/Philadelphia deserves that. Unfortunatley there have been far too many changes based on $$$ and politics. I hope this chaos leads to establishing good leadership. I hope this chaos allows Principals to support teachers and not experimental curricula. I wish you and your students the best!

Reply
I Teach in Philly
8/31/2011 06:01:55 am

Sad to say I have no faith at all in our administrators from our interim superintendent down to the principal in my school.

What a miserable place to work. I would love to just focus on teaching students but trivial paperwork, feuding administrators and the power-crazy denizens of 440 (and their politician $ponsor$) make it just about impossible.

Sure I wish the politicking, back-stabbing and educational trends du jour would end but nothing in the past 2 years leads me to believe anything will change. It'll be new faces with the same selfish motives. SOS

Reply
Meghan D.
9/1/2011 04:18:59 am

20 ways to Kill Ideas

1. It’s against company policy
2. It’s not practical
3. It’s not necessary
4. We don’t have the resources
5. It will cost too much
6. We’ve never done it that way
7. Our client won’t like it
8. It needs more study
9. It’s not part of our job
10. Let’s make a survey first
11. Let’s sit on it for a while
12. That’s not our problem
13. The boss won’t go for it
14. The old timers won’t use it
15. It’s too hard to implement
16. Why hasn’t someone else suggested it before?
17. Let’s form a committee
18. We should wait until the economy improves
19. It's never been done before
20. Once you've been here a while, you'll understand.

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    I am a math teacher in the New York Department of Education. I infuse technology and real-world problems into my curriculum in order to prepare my students for the future. I would love for people across the country to recognize we teachers can't do it alone. If you don't believe me, come visit my classroom!

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