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Cronyism and a final lamentation in Seattle
Four years ago, I took a job at an institution that seemed specifically crafted for my talents. I hit the ground running and found myself striving as a home visiting teacher of parents and babies and advocate for low income Hispanic families. I loved my job. My supervisor was everything you want in a supervisor: knowledgable, supportive and she believed in me. She let me shine.
Two years later, we were granted an expansion grant and I was transferred to a fledgling office in the north of the county. Soon after, it became apparent that the new director of our program was good at finding money but not so good at managing it OR his team of amazingly talented, knowledgable and strong women. Post securing expansion funding, he began to dismantle a system that ran like a well greased machine for 15 years prior- with no solid plan of what he would build in its stead. Till this day- I can still see evidence that he has misplaced the mysterious blue prints.
We all wondered about his choices in new “managers” and “supervisors.” My own rock star supervisor bowed out of our program- no doubt smelling what lay on the horizon. The word cronyism surfaced to my frontal lobes…
So there I found myself in a new office, new team, new supervisor- among new faces, none of too impressive credentials or even experience to know what Early Head Start is. Worst of all my new supervisor had no idea what she was doing, what the federal guidelines and standards were or what the purpose of our program really is, beyond an office from which to base her social commitments, rotary clubs and other non-program related business…
With more than 10 years experience as a teacher in the early learning field, I was told at my old campus that I would serve as a mentor in the new office, but alas- the new supervisor, who spent her childhood as a performer, understandably had an ego that would not permit it. I understand how she may have felt threatened, but she lacked the skill, vocabulary or leadership quality to know how to deal with her feelings professionally. I think of the story Gone With the Wind when Scarlett O’Hara says “Unspoken words become small ghosts…”
For nearly two years, I was bombarded with passive aggressive hostility, occasional open hostility, racial micro-aggression and the classic ramblings of an insecure One-Up. Anything to try and elevate herself…? Being the sole provider for my family, I brushed it off most of the time. When I could tolerate it no longer, I made formal complaints and began to document everything. Six months later, my documentation fit into five pages.
The process was educational, informative and rather eye opening… What I call discrimination, prejudice and racism, the executive director of human resources labeled: “crunchy.” Crunchy, like stepping on broken glass? Or crunchy because it strikes a disharmonious chord in your own ignorant bliss to admit that there is a bigot among you? It is easier to sweep out the knowledge of covert animosity from a beloved sexagenarian than to take a proactive and honest stand.
I can only hope that the pot I stirred left some reverberation of justice in it’s wake? That in the future, such an accusation will not be ignored, swept away and deemed too crunchy to acknowledge.
Coward.
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Wiki Says:
Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the establishment of equality, and a working political order that serves the true interests of all. In international relations, peacetime is not only the absence of war or conflict, but also the presence of cultural and economic understanding and unity….
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(via pushthemovement)
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"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
Albert Einstein (via meinfocus)
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Sinclair Lewis
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A Memory
When I was in the third grade, we were pulled out of our assigned classes a few weeks into the school year and placed in another room with a temporary new teacher. Temporary meant that she had no teaching license but held a degree in literature which made her qualified to read a book. The problem was overcrowding in the schools and the solution was to hire on anyone with a Bachelor’s level degree, then give them three years to acquire a teaching license. Ironically, 20 years later the state of Florida still does this and I benefited from this poor practice but that is a whole other story…
Mrs. Martin (real names will be used for sake of acknowledging her legacy) was hmm… unqualified, racist and really immature. She taught me a thing or two about animosity and she spoiled the sanctuary of the classroom for me for many years to come.
I’m not sure if it was when she held me back from going to my regular gifted classes twice a week, because as she put it, “there’s no way you’re gifted.” Or if it was the time she announced emphatically to the class after I won the 3rd grade Spelling Bee, “Now class, Just because she won the spelling bee does not make her the smartest kid in the class.” ? It certainly wasn’t when the principal discovered that she sat the class segregated as in black children and myself in the back, pretty little white kids up front…. But I do know that she lost her job because my mother is a force to reckon with.
I was a very articulate child and my mother was a pretty active member of the PTA. Mrs. Martin finally agreed to a tape recorder in the classroom unbeknownst to any of us- clearly they would all agree that I was the problem. In the end, it wasn’t my mother’s complaints or the obvious intention of her seating charts that got her gone. It was when she’d heard that a few of us were studying for Holy Communion and she expressed her Atheists beliefs on tape, that eventually got her fired. Hate who you will but leave Jesus alone, especially when you’re in the deep south.
This year of my life had a great impact on me. It was traumatic but I had the strength and the spirit of my mother igniting whatever fire I had in my veins. This was a struggle she had been fighting since she emigrated from Cuba in the 1960’s. She demanded that I fight back, she told me to run directly to the principal’s office if I was being humiliated by this horrid sour-smelling woman. I did just that. This experience kick-started this battle in my head and in my heart for justice and I’ve since seen little reason to back down 20 something years later.
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Jason deCaires Taylor, La Evolución Silenciosa (The Silent Evolution)
(Source: underwatersculpture.com)
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Mural in Golden State Mutual bldg “The Negro in California History.” Unveiled in 1949, they were painted by two American artists, Hale Woodruff and Charles Alston.
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"Time is an enormous, long river, and I’m standing in it, just as you’re standing in it. My elders are the tributaries, and everything they thought and every struggle they went through and everything they gave their lives to, and every song they created, and every poem that they laid down flows down to me – and if I take the time to ask, and if I take the time to see, and if I take the time to reach out, I can build that bridge between my world and theirs. I can reach down into that river and take out what I need to get through this world”
utah phillips (May 15, 1935 – May 23, 2008)" -
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indulgence
- Be watchful when dating an older man or woman for condescending manners. For example, statements that hint at the fact that you are younger, have seen or experienced less than I, therefore… kind of talk.
- Beware of the he or she that will attempt to mold you. Warning signs: buying you clothes, jewelry, or other adornment when you’ve only just met within a few months or so ago. Another warning sign- he or she has a list of character flaws in their head for you. Reserve that privilege for someone you’ve been married to or living with for 5+ years. In essence, if you are not good enough for him or her, right now, as is- FLEE.
- Be alarmed if they cringe around children (obvious creep).
- Warning bell when: He wears hair product, waxes regularly, gets mani-pedis and expects the same of you. This type of man is useless when you really think about it… Same goes for the lady. When I see a craigslist add for a house rental and all they show me is the exterior of the house, it makes me suspicious. Exerting excessive amount of resources on the exterior, rarely leaves one time to deal with what’s happening on the inside… are you hiding something?
Finally, the type of art, music and food that one indulges in tells you all you need to know about someone, really. That’s what it boils down to. If those three things pair up well with yours and the obvious warning signs are not present- then the rest are details worth working out.
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Which one are you? (click here)
I read this fascinating wiki article on love styles.
Love styles are models of how people love, originally developed by John Lee (1973,[1] 1988[2]). He identified six basic love styles—also known as “colors” of love—that people use in their interpersonal relationships:
- Eros – a passionate physical and emotional love based on aesthetic enjoyment; stereotype of romantic love
- Ludus – a love that is played as a game or sport; conquest; may have multiple partners at once
- Storge – an affectionate love that slowly develops from friendship, based on similarity (kindred to Philia)
- Pragma – love that is driven by the head, not the heart; undemonstrative
- Mania – obsessive love; experience great emotional highs and lows; very possessive and often jealous lovers
- Agape – selfless altruistic love; spiritual….
Click header to read full article.
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