Now I know why they give out participation trophies.
I am a baby boomer, and I vaguely recall being given a participation trophy for swimming. Obviously I was not a good swimmer, or else I would have received a trophy for good swimming, not participation. I don’t remember being impressed that I got a participation trophy, and I don’t remember being proud of it. I do remember wondering why I got a participation trophy when it was my mom who made me go to swim practice (which I hated) anyway. (That was in the days when moms could make their kids do stuff.)
Fast forward to 2018:
“What?!” cried the student, “Ms B is quitting?! She just gave us a lecture on how when you make a commitment you should see it through.”
It was worse than that. Not just one, but two of my colleagues quit in the past three weeks. Normally that might not be so bad, but I work in a school and these two people were teachers. They have left the students high and dry in the middle of the first semester. One of the teachers was a theatre teacher. She was mad that the students hadn’t memorized their lines adequately for the school fall performance, so she quit just before the performance date. This is a woman with ten years of teaching experience.
Ok, so I’m not saying that our work environment is the easiest. Clearly it isn’t. Clearly, certain things have happened this semester that make teaching more difficult than last year. One big issue is that the Principal had to take a forced leave of absence while being investigated for allegations of sexual harassment of some of the female members of staff. He had been gone for a month, and no one knew when the investigation would be finished or even whether or not he would ever return (he didn’t). Another issue is that this same head teacher had failed to attract new students to the school last year. So, true, with a lot of seniors having graduated and no new students coming in as freshmen, we were wondering if our small school would survive.
Nevertheless, even given the difficult work environment, to quit a teaching position mid-year is a bit extreme. I’ll call the first colleague Mr. A. Mr. A and I are both former members of the military. He tried to explain why he was leaving, and I agreed that it was a difficult work environment. However, I said, you know, in the military you can’t just bail on your squadron. Everyone has got to be committed to mission accomplishment in order for the team to work well. My arguments fell on deaf ears and he quit.
The second quitting colleague first threatened to quit after she didn’t receive enough thanks for the work she did with Student Government for the Homecoming dance. I said, “You know, its like when you’re a mom and you see your baby sleeping comfortably at night, and you know they are warm and well-fed and healthy. They aren’t going to thank you for it, but just seeing them warm, healthy and well-fed is your thanks. You saw the kids all had fun at the party, that’s your thanks.” Well, perhaps I chose my analogy badly because at 37 years old she has never had kids. My persuasions fell on deaf ears and she quit anyway.
Not that I’m bitter, but I’ve been tasked to direct the play for the theatre teacher and to write the curriculum for the other teachers’ classes. Which only brought to mind the theatre teachers’ last words to me, “Don’t be mad at me.” To be honest, “Don’t be mad at me” was her mantra most of the way through the year, including when she quit the dorm parenting aspect of our work (leaving more dorm rotations for those who remained).
The bottom line is this: some people do not appreciate how important it is just to show up to work and do the best job you can with the materials (and people) you have been given (however flawed those people and materials might be). It’s not always easy, but there is a lot to be said for persevering and getting the job done.
Sometimes I just wish there were more moms around these days to make their kids show up and do the participation needed to get one of those stupid plastic trophies. As Woody Allen once famously quipped: “Showing up is 80% of life.” Maybe he should have told my colleagues, and maybe, just maybe, we should go back to giving out participation trophies.
