I remembered a while ago that when I was growing up and *in school,* and in major colleges/ universities, I learned to expect poor management and decisions that just didn’t work in real life that everybody in real life would have to figure out how to work around. My home county was laughably incompetent even at things like whether it should be a snow day or not. They’d change the decision all morning instead of Just Deciding.
The first times I stumbled over competence it astounded me… and then I realized that okay, there were people who knew how to manage things. There were schools and institutions that worked *because* of admin, not despite it. My current place of employment was one of those places then.
I’m re-learning about the constant communication necessary to figure out those workarounds. I’m remembering (fortunately from past, not present) that it’s important to anticipate who amongst the co-workers has a different agenda and will be a spy for administrators (and that it’s important to act like the administrators are just great On General Principle while figuring out ways to help students move forward despite the awkward constraints and barriers thrown our way.
Resource Room Dot Net Blog 
Posted on March 17, 2021
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