The Decline

In September, I will enter my third year of teaching 8th grade English after having taught the previous seven years at a high school in another district. Many factors contributed to the change in my work zip code, one of which was my desire to restart by working with an age group that still believed in possibilities and who would benefit the most from instruction to build their literacy. The biggest factor, however, was a need to leave what had become a hopeless situation.

In my last few years at the high school level, I taught seniors who began to suffer from senioritis as early as October. While their lack of motivation was dispiriting, their lack of literacy and critical thinking skills as they neared the beginning of their independent adult lives was devastating. Being 17-19 year-olds, many had already solidified their beliefs about school, believed they had learned all they could be taught, and saw themselves as being too grown to be told what to do and how to do it. Myopic about their own futures, many perceived my continued demands for rigor and accountability as me "forcing it" or being a witch. They did not seem to understand that my demands were rooted in a recognition that due to many societal biases and isms against them, they were on their way out into a world with the deck already stacked against them. As such, I believed it was my duty to give them a fighting chance by developing in them solid skills in the short time we had together. Unfortunately, in the three years that I taught seniors, guidance counselors' and administrators' needs to "graduate" these seniors led to some unsavory and undermining practices that severely clashed with my values and chipped away some of my beliefs as an educator.

In my last year there, I became bitter, angry, and lost faith and trust in some crucial people's willingness and ability to do what is best and right for the students. Which was really a shame because as a school, we had been making progress until an inept district leader--supported by ill-informed community leaders--decimated all the good we had built in four years from what had been a crumbling structure. This "leader" who ravaged our district lasted for no more than three years, but only because he couldn't be bought out of his contract sooner. (His contract expired a year after I left). Though I absolutely loved (and continue to love and miss) my colleagues in the English department (and a few others from other departments), I desperately wanted and needed to leave what became a toxic work environment. In addition, staff morale was extremely, and understandably, low.

I reflect on this experience with bitter-sweetness because I had envisioned myself remaining in that school system for a very long time. After all, I loved my students, worked with some great and dedicated people who I still love to meet up with, and felt connected to and invested in the community. Were it not for the continued dysfunction with a revolving door in leadership at the school and district level, I would not mind going back to work there. This is all to say that this particular school (and maybe the whole district) exemplifies what Anthony Muhammad, Ph.D. identifies as a toxic and dysfunctional school culture in Transforming School Culture: How to Overcome Staff Division (2009).

It's important for me to point out that most of the toxic culture at that particular high school is not driven by staff division between teachers but rather division among teachers and administrators and community leaders. This division is a result of a lack of trust and confidence many of the teachers have in the district's "leaders." How could they not when there has been instability in leadership, teacher retention, educational philosophies, school-wide goals, beliefs, and structures--all of which are crucibles for a toxic and dysfunctional school culture?