Share your thoughts...

... if you can stand the irony of my boss handing out the "Are You an Educator or a Bully?" paper at our meeting today.

This is the second time in one year we, as a staff, have been handed this form created by Linda Starr in 2003. To me it is a slap in the face, because I do not believe I am a bully to my students, or that the standout colleagues I work with are bullies.. and yet there are people on campus who bully not only their kids, but their colleagues too on a daily basis. Those people should be dealt with by "privately counseling" and an adminstrator who can "diffuse disruptions with humor". Um, yeah. That would require that your leader actually not be a bully. Just because he isn't aggressive, doesn't mean he doesn't bully or manipulate people, and this whole thing is a shad hypocritical.

For my principal to hand this out with comments printed on it like "bullies humiliate" or "bullies make examples of those with bad behavior" really sticks in my craw. What kind of leader hands this out arbitrarily and makes some excuse that this is his "best example of what a good educator is"? Not to mention the best analogy he could come up with is that SCJ Douglas was asked to define "pornography" and he couldn't stating, "but I know it when I see it". Somehow the comparison was a bit off.

Really? What did he do, clean out his desk and find this form from year ago and think, "hey I'll copy this for today's meeting"... on unauthorized colored, one-sided printed paper, no less. Geez!