Principals principled bullying
Karl du Fresne has an excellent post – When the schoolyard bully is a principal. du Fresne exposes the standover tactics being used by certain elements within the teaching ‘profession’ to intimidate teachers who have positive views re National Standards.
du Fresne wrote:-
What made this schoolyard bullying unusual was that the perpetrators were grown men – two Northland school principals heavying a female colleague who committed the inexcusable sin of breaking ranks over national standards.
Donna Donnelly, principal of Tikipunga School, Whangarei, is a supporter of national standards. This was clearly intolerable to two fellow principals, Peter Witana and Pat Newman, who sent her intimidating emails.
Just why do these two bullies think their behaviour is justified?
As du Fresne notes:-
Intolerance of minority or opposing views can be a deeply unattractive aspect of trade union culture, and it’s not the first time we’ve seen evidence of it in the teaching unions. Attempts to introduce bulk funding in secondary schools in the 1990s were sabotaged by blatant teacher intimidation of elected school boards and the worst shame of it was that the Bolger government was too gutless to intervene.
It is an interesting point that the NZ teacher unions seem to regard themselves as not needing to comply with laws they object to, especially any which might expose poor teaching. As the guy in the Heller’s ad says ‘Strange that!’
Equally worrying is the apparent acceptance by parents and school boards of this repugnant behaviour. Far better expressed by Karl du Fresne here:-
Whatever the background factors, nothing excuses Witana and Newman for behaving like a couple of gang enforcers. It’s intolerable enough that teacher activists should arrogantly defy an elected government, and in so doing place themselves above the democratic process that other public servants dutifully accept; but it becomes even more offensive when they collectively harass anyone brave or rash enough to defy them.
Time the population as a whole saw off these bullies.
Bullying is unacceptable, even more so when it is carried out by school principals in the name of principle.
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“Bullying is unacceptable, even more so when it is carried out by school principals in the name of principle.”
But in the teacher world it always, always pays off. How else to explain getting double the pay rises of nearly all other groups of the last ten years?
At the end of the day, all working parents viscerally recognise that teachers have total power over their children lives and future for more of their waking hours than they do.. thats a matter of law and necessity for paying the mortgage.
JC