sometimes things happen that no one intended. In social studies, this is called “Unintended Consequences.’ According to Wikipedia, these are “outcomes of a purposeful action that are not intended or foreseen.” I think there were quite a few unintended consequences of some actions last week. Will these turn out to be good or bad? We’ll have to wait and see.
Last week we got two robocalls from the Polk County School Board telling us that no matter how many teachers chose to attend the education rally in Tallahassee “school would continue as usual.” I think the intended outcome was to reassure parents that their students would still be taught. But, I think there were serious UNINTENDED outcomes. First of all, the more you tell people basically, that you don’t need them, the more they may want to prove to you that you do. We have been told that the numbers of staff members who took the personal day doubled and then tripled before Friday. Maybe if we hadn’t been told that our county really didn’t need us, so many people might not have decided “Well, prove it.” BTW, anytime a student has a substitute teacher, it’s not a “normal school day.”
I think another intended outcome of the robocalls was to try to get parents annoyed with teachers and to make staff who chose to take their personal day look bad. No one will say that, but I feel like it was. However, the unintended outcome was to make the School Board look bad for ignoring the rally, and TRYING to make staff look bad. Additionally, many, many parents kept their students home from school on Monday, which certainly made it easier for schools to continue with fewer staff. If a school had half of its students out on Monday, it certainly explains why it was such a great day on Monday.
The email that we got from the Department of Education, was intended to “inform teachers of the possible consequences of their actions” and “sent in the spirit of transparency. I think another intended outcome was to “scare” people into going to work, because contrary to whatever our robocalls actually said, school could NOT have continued with all of the people absent. In this respect, it worked, Many, many people did cancel their personal leave and return to school. The unintended outcomes are ENORMOUS. This “threatening to fire teachers” thing went viral. Forbes.com posted it. Elizabeth Warren commented on it. Monday in Tallahassee, EVERYONE there knew that we were threatened with being fired. Parents, teachers, people all over the nation are angry. People in our county are angry. There is a petition asking for our superintended to be fired that has gathered over 5000 signatures.
We got an email from the Superintendent of our county on the 15th. You can read it here: https://www.facebook.com/polkcountypublicschools/?__tn__=%2Cd%2CP-R&eid=ARDrQqjajRw8fiWVuitbW1iA1AIxVf5-uM3eLKIGG0crLLfQbr50HBQI1SgZ9VmYuL_ddhNywaF8MtjY
The intended outcome was to smooth things over and explain how she’d like us to move on. Reading the comments, many people believe this is a genuine, heartfelt email. Others, not so much. One unintended outcome is more bitterness. It says “The first thing I can do is apologize for the e-mail from the Florida Department of Education.” Yes, yes, we all CAN apologize, but do we? She didn’t, really. And admitting you should apologize after the whole country has heard what you did and thinks you're mean for doing it. Yeah, it doesn’t ring really genuine to me. For many, many people this is too little, too late.
As teachers, we know that we don’t always see fruit tomorrow from the seeds we plant today. We know how to wait. We know that everything takes time – there ‘s very little instant gratification in teaching. I saw a student once in high school who told me “Thank you” for wanting more from him than he was willing to give. He said he didn’t get why I fussed at him for being mediocre when he was clearly capable of so much more. He said when he got to high school, he understood. I don’t know if our rally in Tallahassee will make much difference. I hope so, I certainly think that some people I know, now understand some things they didn’t before. Teachers are good at “wait and see.” I guess when it comes to these events, we will just have to wait and see.
I think another intended outcome of the robocalls was to try to get parents annoyed with teachers and to make staff who chose to take their personal day look bad. No one will say that, but I feel like it was. However, the unintended outcome was to make the School Board look bad for ignoring the rally, and TRYING to make staff look bad. Additionally, many, many parents kept their students home from school on Monday, which certainly made it easier for schools to continue with fewer staff. If a school had half of its students out on Monday, it certainly explains why it was such a great day on Monday.
The email that we got from the Department of Education, was intended to “inform teachers of the possible consequences of their actions” and “sent in the spirit of transparency. I think another intended outcome was to “scare” people into going to work, because contrary to whatever our robocalls actually said, school could NOT have continued with all of the people absent. In this respect, it worked, Many, many people did cancel their personal leave and return to school. The unintended outcomes are ENORMOUS. This “threatening to fire teachers” thing went viral. Forbes.com posted it. Elizabeth Warren commented on it. Monday in Tallahassee, EVERYONE there knew that we were threatened with being fired. Parents, teachers, people all over the nation are angry. People in our county are angry. There is a petition asking for our superintended to be fired that has gathered over 5000 signatures.
We got an email from the Superintendent of our county on the 15th. You can read it here: https://www.facebook.com/polkcountypublicschools/?__tn__=%2Cd%2CP-R&eid=ARDrQqjajRw8fiWVuitbW1iA1AIxVf5-uM3eLKIGG0crLLfQbr50HBQI1SgZ9VmYuL_ddhNywaF8MtjY
The intended outcome was to smooth things over and explain how she’d like us to move on. Reading the comments, many people believe this is a genuine, heartfelt email. Others, not so much. One unintended outcome is more bitterness. It says “The first thing I can do is apologize for the e-mail from the Florida Department of Education.” Yes, yes, we all CAN apologize, but do we? She didn’t, really. And admitting you should apologize after the whole country has heard what you did and thinks you're mean for doing it. Yeah, it doesn’t ring really genuine to me. For many, many people this is too little, too late.
As teachers, we know that we don’t always see fruit tomorrow from the seeds we plant today. We know how to wait. We know that everything takes time – there ‘s very little instant gratification in teaching. I saw a student once in high school who told me “Thank you” for wanting more from him than he was willing to give. He said he didn’t get why I fussed at him for being mediocre when he was clearly capable of so much more. He said when he got to high school, he understood. I don’t know if our rally in Tallahassee will make much difference. I hope so, I certainly think that some people I know, now understand some things they didn’t before. Teachers are good at “wait and see.” I guess when it comes to these events, we will just have to wait and see.
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