The Fall Of My Discontent

It has been a long time since I have been able to write in the blog. The fall of this school year has been brutal for me. We have had a major labor contract problem (for a history of this ugly time from the union perspective) in my school district, and it has been a situation that has hurt almost everyone associated with my school district. My job was threatened on numerous occasions by the board and administration if I participated in an "illegal job action." I never wanted to strike, and I would have had grave reservations about walking out on my job with my students under any circumstances. The threat of being fired added another level to the depression that everyone felt with the current situation in our district.

I'm currently taking a class that involves neuroscience and learning. It is a fascinating class, and I'm thankful to be part of it. One of the ideas that has been put forward is that people need a non-threatening environment to learn effectively. The absence of threat is a necessity. This is a very ironic bit of knowledge when applied to the current situation in my learning organization. Teachers are supposed to be learners too, right? What happens to the teacher, and his or her ability to go forward as a teacher or learner when there is a contstant presence of threat? The threat of losing a job, benefits, and possibly a degraded opportunity to find another job in education has consistently been in place for months in our school district. I wonder how much this has cost us all. I also wonder what anyone has learned from this situation.