Showing posts with label enablers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label enablers. Show all posts

Thursday, 14 November 2024

Teachers who bully teachers!


It is my experience that no matter how competent, experienced, or well credentialed an educator might be if your face doesn't fit you may as well look elsewhere if you're a teacher dedicated to teaching students.

I've heard of teachers targeted because of their teaching competency, their popularity with students and staff. I'm speaking of the jealous and vindictive narcissist other, who cannot accept nor appreciate those by whom they are threatened.

A narcissist inclined person at a school I've heard of could not contemplate that a colleague could be so popular, vivacious, and highly respected amongst staff, students, and parents. They intentionally set out to undermine and besmirch the character of their target. How was this done? The narcissist protagonist surfed the internet to get background information on their quarry, downloaded pictures and passed them on to leadership. This information was used to bully and intimidate them. I'm told they were slut shamed to put them and keep them in their place according to several others. They sought professional help and was placed on medication for depression as related by the victim to others.

This is one strategy employed by leadership in tandem with sycophant allies in the school setting to target and victimise the unsuspecting victim, especially when the victim is on contract and therefore is in a position of weakness.

The preferred and favoured staff member was one of many informants, like minded 'friends' who would report back to the principal through the preferred other who held sway over the principal who regarded them with fondness and who treated them preferentially. This favoured other would often say that the principal 'will do what I tell them to do' such was the power and influence they wielded.

Other means were used against unsuspecting others who were on the outer so to speak because e.g., their exceptional skills and capabilities, took the limelight away from the teacher informant. The teacher informant and tell-tale colleagues would make up, concoct stories about others, telling leadership about things that didn't happen. Or CCTV was used to monitor targeted staff, to obtain information that would be used against them e.g., to suggest they look elsewhere for their next appointment.

One person relates how the favoured other would often walk past their classroom and just look in the window or stand at the door and move on. They would then go to leadership and report on anything they had ‘observed.’ Rumours were put about suggesting that the highly competent target teacher's classroom was e.g., untidy, dirty and that they were not 'team' players because of whatever reason they decided to make up. 

It is reported that the targeted teacher became ill, felt like vomiting whenever the bully colleague walked by. They didn't go to the staffroom and it was traumatising to go to the bathroom as they had to pass by or be in the view of those who were bullying and intimidating them. They spoke in whispers when talking with trusted others in case others heard what they said. They would sit in their car in the carpark dry reaching at the thought of having to expose themselves to the malice of the bullies they had to work with. Several colleagues related that this teacher was traumatised and they had grave concerns for their wellbeing. The harm experienced by this teacher was targeted, intentional and sustained. 

Teachers bully teachers and use whatever means at their disposal to engineer a world that suits and favours them. They employ others to do their bidding by favouring them and rewarding them e.g., making sure they get contracts, using the school budget for gifts to reward their loyalty. Yes, this happens in schools. Bullying is an accepted way to establish and maintain an order that suits a small group of privileged others. 

Education Today

We are teachers

Teachers can be bullied

Professional bullying in schools

 

 


Monday, 29 January 2024

Roger Bent Walked a Crooked Mile!

Roger Bent was an aspirational type who worked out early what he wanted and aimed to become what he imagined he could be. He was not particularly gifted in any significant way but he had a brimming reservoir of self-belief that fuelled his trajectory to his goal of greatness. He was besotted with himself and his narcissistic desires, and his wants and needs took precedence over those of others, who were useful only as far as that they could help him onwards and upwards.

'The only thing worse than ignorance is arrogance.' Albert Einstein

He was a classroom teacher for a while and he tolerated the discomfort and ignominy of sitting on what he thought was the bottom rung of the corporate ladder. This was a temporary situation as he worked out the lie of the land, and how best he would use those around him to get what he wanted.

He made strategic connections with significant others, saying the right thing to the right people at the right time, making personal and professional alliances with those who would help him on his way.

His leadership colleagues recognised the attributes and qualities which would help them in their quest for corporate glory. They relayed this good news to their line manager, the local education director who deemed he had potential and had ‘corporate’ sensibilities.

Bent had ingratiated himself into what would become a powerful and influential trinity of influence and privilege; the aspiring classroom teacher leader, the narcissist principal, and the bully director.

'Sycophants suck up to those who can help them and discard them when they are of no use to them anymore.'  Dr. Dan D. Ruff

Though still a lowly classroom teacher Bents profile grew in the school as he worked hard to help his principal achieve their goals, meet site KPI’s which in turn would reflect well on the director overseer whose reputation was only as good as the network school’s performance.

The students of course were to Bent what all insignificant others were, a means to an end. He supported the director and the principal in beefing up the academics of reading, writing and arithmetic whilst music, play based learning and other secondary subject considerations became afterthought electives. The better the academic test scores, the stronger the trinity became. The results reflected well on them and their need for approval became the driving force behind what they did.

'I need their approval.' Roger Bent

It wasn’t long before Bent got his foot in the leadership door and he was rewarded by the principal for his dedication to the tasks they set for him, which he attended to without question. He was anointed duly as the curriculum coordinator with the accompanying privileges and entitlements. The director in turn was happy to rubber stamp what was essentially a principal/director strategically made appointment.

Bent became less interested in the lives and travails of his teacher peers as their usefulness diminished whilst his leadership fortunes continued upward. He had no qualms about this as he now moved in the rarefied air of the influencers and decision makers. He had become a privileged leadership group member, a comrade in arms who set themselves apart from the classroom teacher plebs who were there to do their bidding.

'Teacher's should know their place and do what they are told.' Education Director, Dame Dorrie Dumpling

The Leadership Group expressed their privilege and entitlement in not-so-subtle ways, reflecting a coarse and naïve disregard and disrespect for the classroom teachers who worked tirelessly just down the corridor from where they would often meet. They would chat, laugh, and socialise as they believed they were entitled to and they reflected on where they had come from, lowly classroom teachers to managers and decision makers. They would order in take away and go on extended ‘meetings’ outside of school with the odd Maccas stopover or shopping jaunt as they wended their way back to school, having left some underling to cover for them. Yes, this was the way to go and Bent thought that there were more spoils in the offing.

'A corporatized education leader is a person who says yes to whatever is demanded of them without question.' Aunt Nellie Norbitt

Bent was on his way to better things and he accrued brownie points for doing what was demanded of him and which he did with alacrity. The rank and file distrusted him and his motives but he cared not a jot! Those in the know valued his contributions to the collective corporate goals, aims and objectives, and he felt satisfied with his progress … for now.

Bent negotiated, fawned, and crawled his way to a principalship. He stayed connected with his mentors and they fed off each other’s egos and they’d meet and regale their successes and wins in the business of education.

'To be a leader one has to risk the dislike and disdain of others but in the end it doesn't matter as long as I get what I want.' Roger Bent

Mr Bent eventually, found himself appointed as a local education director and he felt appropriately chuffed at the speed at which he’d reached this milestone and he thought the sky was the limit though he’d focus on this role for the time being. He had an office and staff to tend to his administrative needs and he was set. But it wasn’t as easy as he thought. He was accountable and had oversight over a network of schools and he soon realised he was out of his depth.

One local school was doing particularly well and he fell into a cosy relationship with the principal there. He knew he had to look after those who made him look good but this was his undoing, the great unravelling, the beginning of his demise, the beginning of the end.

How could this be? How could our golden teacher prodigy get so close but in the end fall oh so far from the world he had imagined in the early days? He had fallen foul of his own underhanded shenanigans.

The local school which he had cosied up to had what we will call staff troubles. Though the school had ‘performed’ exceedingly well in the national tests and everyone was appropriately well chuffed there was a simmering undercurrent of discontent, a potential powder keg of resentment of the disenfranchised, a disquiet that detracted from the overall health and wellbeing of the people who worked there and which could explode at any moment, a toxic slurry of discontent!

'The shit would surely hit the fan. A big jobby was on its way!' Jim 'Jobby' McGregor

What had Mr. Bent done? A school employee had been the subject of a targeted vendetta against them, not too dissimilar to the experiences of many others over the years whose ‘miscreance’ had seen them cast out the door, dismissed and discarded at the behest of a chosen few who ran the place. One particular ‘golden child’ so much loved and respected by the principal would every now and then decide that a particular ‘other’ didn’t fit their conception of how the school should look and feel. It may be that a person was popular, vivacious, competent, and skilled or well liked by the students or their parents enough to detract from the ‘golden child’s’ self-aggrandising and overinflated sense of importance (that’s another story!).

'I don't like that one. They're not nice. Get rid of them!'  Prudence Putty Nose

So, the boss did as they were told and began the process of ‘termination’ as had happened so many times over the years. The principal couldn’t countenance a situation where their favourite mentee felt uncomfortable, tearful, and unhappy and like the proverbial knight on their white steed rode to their rescue.

The targeted other had made a complaint about bullying to the appropriate authorities and confidential correspondence which went to Mr. Bents office, found its way back to the local school where the principal and his mentee were privy to information which would be prejudicial to the bullied educator’s chances of justice and fair play. Mr Bent, Roger Bent, had stepped over the line of everything ethical, professional, and right to help a ‘mate,’ to add to the bullying dynamic of bully, victim, and bystander.

Long story short, Mr Bent was investigated by the police and duly held to account and the local school principal and their sycophant enablers were disciplined accordingly. A new school leadership team was appointed and the school moved on from this unfortunate situation.

No, wait! That’s not right! Mr Bent was moved sideways with all the usual pay and privileges due a Regional Director and the principal and their bullying buddies remained where they were. Mysteriously, the corporate protection squad made the problem go away. Nothing to see here, all’s well that ends well, no?

The bullied educator was left to ponder the imponderable and though they had some satisfaction knowing that they were heard, they were left with a sense of helplessness and disappointment in a system that favours the favoured while the rest go and suffer in their jocks!

'Suffer in your jocks!' Darryl Kerrigan
PS 'I teach kids because I want to and I like it. I don't want to 'escape' to any 'leadership' position. I have standards!' Ed. E. Cated, classroom teacher 

PPS Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead (or those who just seem that way), is purely coincidental.

Teachers who bully teachers!

It is my experience that no matter how competent, experienced, or well credentialed an educator might be if your face doesn't fit you ma...