Friday was a ped-day and ped-days mean meetings. Don't get me wrong, I like my colleagues, my colleagues are excellent teachers, consummate professionals, but whenever you put a bunch of teachers in a room with a mandate to decide on the phrasing of a simple sentence you are in for a long and agonizing time. It took us 2.5 hours to decide on 12 simple comments for the report cards. The nuance of each adjective, noun and verb was discussed until I felt that having root canal work done without anaesthetic would have been better. What does it matter, it'll probably be changed again before the end of the year anyway, I really don't know why people take it so much to heart, we weren't writing the ten commandments here. (This is probably proof that there is a deity, since if the 10 commandments had been writtten by a committee, there would be 100 commandments with 100 subcommandments each and they would still be arguing over whether to put a semi-colon or a comma in the first one. )
(Ironically that morning at breakfast I started reading Kathy Reich's new book "Devil Bones" and the first chapter is about her sitting through a university department meeting that is deciding on a name for the ethics committee... she has obviously been a teacher and knows about meetings because it is a very good description of what happens... )
There are three constants in human history that have blocked human progress, warfare, bureaucracy and committees. Just think of where we could be if we didn't have those holding us back.
(Ironically that morning at breakfast I started reading Kathy Reich's new book "Devil Bones" and the first chapter is about her sitting through a university department meeting that is deciding on a name for the ethics committee... she has obviously been a teacher and knows about meetings because it is a very good description of what happens... )
There are three constants in human history that have blocked human progress, warfare, bureaucracy and committees. Just think of where we could be if we didn't have those holding us back.
6 comments:
Isn't there a saying about the duck-billed platypus seems like an animal designed by committee?
Same thing with a camel... it's a horse designed by a committee. ;o)
Always remember about meetings: The shorter the agenda, the longer and more tiresome the meeting. And never ever have a meeting to decide on a mission statement. Suicide would be preferable.
What's a ped day?
Committees can be roug. In Quaker meeting you sit and talk and fall silent and talk and fall silent until somehow consensus emerges. It can be eexcruciating for an impatient person like me.
Citizen: a ped-day is th abbreviation for pedagogical day. It's a day the students have off and we teachers come in for meetings, committees or for courses on the new curriculum. :o)
God how I hate meetings. I do the minutes for meetings at my job and I just want to scream at them to just get the hell on with it already!!! yeah, I have nothing to do with the meeting and yet, I have to sit through it.
The very definition of hell...
Post a Comment