My firing was rather interesting. I was interrupted during the teaching day by the principal and vice principal, and told that I was being fired, and that the vice principal would be taking over my class that day. Because I had been interrupted during teaching, and hauled out into the hallway for this interview, while the interview was going on my class got rather noisy. So I interrupted the interview, stepped back into the class, and told them to be quiet, which they did. The principal told me that my classroom management had never been in question. This is an interesting comment since, whatever lofty statements anybody may make about the requirement of the educational system to alleviate ignorance, what is really important, in any assessment of any teacher, is primarily classroom management.
The next day I had the more formal interview with the Director of Instruction. He made the point that I really wasn't a bad teacher, and this was not necessarily the end of my career, and that if I should, at any time, take additional training, to let the school district know, and my reference from them would be amended to reflect the fact. This is interesting on two counts. On the one hand it does indicate that both the administration, and the school district, realized that my firing was not really for cause. I was being offered a sop to get me to go quietly. At the same time, it was a complete fabrication. I did take subsequent educational training; I got my master's degree; and informed the school district of this fact. There was absolutely no response from the school district and my assessment remained unchanged.
It's fairly easy to create a situation where a teacher will fail, and you *have* to fire him or her. I don't need to go through the details.
Oddly, although I had been under enormous stress, and had been put on lithium for depression, my immediate reaction was one of overwhelming relief. The nightmare was over. I didn't have to suffer this torture anymore. I packed up and left.
I still didn't think that I was finished with teaching in public school. I already had a plan to go and take my master's degree. I, probably foolishly, and naively, believed them about getting more training, and having my teaching report amended.
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