The Principal's Pet: A Cautionary Tale | Cult of Pedagogy

But my hurt feelings have definitely evolved over time. Instead of seeing myself as some kind of victim in that situation, I see my role in all of it much more clearly: I didn’t value relationships with my colleagues. I didn’t put time, energy, or creativity into building bonds with other teachers. Instead, I poured everything I had into my students, into the quality of my own work, into the pursuit of pedagogical excellence. I didn’t realize how much happier my work life could have been if I had put even a fraction of that time into building better friendships with my peers.

Interesting read. Jennifer offers some suggestions to admins and teachers for preventing poor relationships, but she fails to identify the real issue, at least in my mind: she was being bullied, and that is just part of being a teacher.

That is baloney. Nobody should be bullied, no matter what. Her advice to go to the teachers lounge and be brave, even though you know what is happening there is educational terrorism (h/t to Rob Carroll) is not good advice.

I've been around this entitled baloney that goes on in schools and it makes me sick. No wonder our kids bully each other, our teachers teach them how to do it.

What I hear Jennifer saying here is basically, "I could have done better." While that is always true, her coworkers and principal could have done a lot better, too. Her coworkers shouldn't have bullied her. He principal should have been there to stop that. Perhaps he did some things that allowed those things to happen, but what should he have done instead, given all the good energy and efforts to the educational terrorists? I sure hope not!

Jennifer is right on the money that relationships matter, and that they are two way streets, but at the same time, at some point you have to establish some boundaries and say "This is not OK! And we will not act this way at our school." Yes, still be respectful. Yes still work on the relationships. Yes, still treat them as human beings. But, please, let's put a stop to educators bullying educators.