”
Fear grows in darkness; if you think there’s a bogeyman around,
turn on the light.
”
So said writer Dorothy Thompson. Now while that’s a logical
instruction under most circumstances dealing with fear of the dark,
it assumes two things: one, that there’s a light to turn on (and
that it works), and two, that the bogeyman won’t prevent you from
turning on the light. That might not always be the case.
“Fear grows in darkness; if you think there’s a bogeyman around, turn on the light.” So said writer Dorothy Thompson. Now while that’s a logical instruction under most circumstances dealing with fear of the dark, it assumes two things: one, that there’s a light to turn on (and that it works), and two, that the bogeyman won’t prevent you from turning on the light. That might not always be the case.
I received an email response to my column dated March 30 (titled “Inspirational teachers axed by king Bob”) that I think is important to share with you in this column. I have no reason to doubt that the person who e-mailed me is credible and is not simply in react/anger mode. It appears that this individual has tried to turn on a number of “lights,” without any success. And in situations like this, the darkness of frustration gets darker, while the bogeyman is real, ever waiting with the axe to cut the employment of another teacher who says the wrong thing, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Here’s what I received:
“As an employee in Gilroy Unified [your column] hit it on the head. I have been very vocal in the past and have suffered many forms of harassment and have been treated very unprofessionally by [the] administration from district office because I voiced my concerns. It is sad that what is going on at the high school is just the tip of the iceberg. If the general public knew the ‘them vs. us‚’ environment that exists between [the] administration and teachers they would be shocked. The ‘fear factor‚’ is alive and well at ALL GUSD schools. Many of us who have been vocal in the past have given up because no one listens, given up because district office just ‘doesn’t get it‚’ or we have run out of energy fighting.”
After further dialog with this person as to what support I could offer, I received the following reply, which I’m including as well because of its chilling overtones.
“I think if you can just get the point across to the public that what is happening at the high school is just the tip of the iceberg. There are some administrators that are fair and understanding, but those are very few. This includes district office administration and site administrators. There is one board member that is at least questioning what is happening instead of trusting everything that he hears. I hope this questioning carries over to more issues besides the recent firing issue. The frustrations that most teachers are facing run the span from the amount of testing that is required to be done, including the frequency and timing of the testing, to lack of honest two-way communication. Many teachers do not feel heard, or have quit trying to improve on the system or give input because all attempts in the past have fallen on deaf ears. Many feel that even when committees are formed to ‘get input‚’ the decisions have already been made, and that [the] administration is just going through the motions to make us feel like our input counts.”
Apparently the fear factor is so prevalent in GUSD that employees who would like to express their feelings in writing to the media (while asking for confidentiality) won’t do so – for fear their names would somehow leak out.
Needless to say, what’s been said by this person have more of an application to living in a dictatorial regime like present day North Korea or Iran, than in a city like Gilroy, California, USA, where one would certainly hope that the fear and frustration described would never exist in any working environment, much less the Gilroy Unified School District.
So, what’s the solution to the dilemma of broken “lights” and “bogeymen” in GUSD? First, some “high wattage lights” need to be installed in GUSD so that light is scattered into the darkest corners of employees’ fears and doubts. That “light” is open communication without fear of reprisal. Repeat: no reprisal. Second, the “bogeymen” need to be defanged. It’s my understanding that both of these tasks should be the combined responsibility of the GUSD superintendent and Board of Education.
The fact is that something needs to be done, and done soon. Fear does grow in darkness. Who will step up to the challenge of turning on the light?
