- The power to enforce laws, exact obedience, command, determine, or judge.
- One that is invested with this power...
Authority doesn't mean just "exact obedience, command." It also means to "determine, judge." The true outworking of our authority must include a full discussion and agreement together about what kind of school we want for our students. How do we want to interact with our students? We determine together how this will be done. We make judgements together as teachers about the type of environment we will create together for our students.
There are some situations where our authority is not consistently reflected within the school. Part of the cause of this is because of change in routines, change in room assignments, change in personnel. Part of the cause is also that we don't have a firm sense of agreement about "how we want our school to be." Then, when one attempts to bring "new" and seemingly arbitrary rules and procedures into that situation, there is resistance. If we do not work out how and where our authority as teachers needs to be exercised, then we will run into problems. For example, in our grade seven lunchroom a system was set up where one teacher was responsible for supervising a group of 30-75 grade sevens. A few rules were set in place as the basis for order and decency in the room. It became obvious very soon that some of the kids didn't feel any ownership for the rules, since one of them brazenly tore the sheets off the wall, much to the delight of many! We overlooked the imporant role of inclusion. That is, we didn't include the students in the discussion of the new rules and procedures.
This is from my journal of June 15. You can see the frustration I'm facing because of having no sense of authority:
I was steamed at lunch time, because of trying to supervise our ridiculous grade 7 lunch room by enforcing the agreed upon rules, ie. sit in your assigned seat, stay seated while eating, converse quietly, permission to move is given only when all garbage is cleaned up. The kids have not been held to these rules that were agreed upon a few short weeks ago, so now they just sit wherever they want. And I don't blame them--the kids don't see the big deal about sitting wherever. They've not had the opportunity to understand the issues at stake, ie. attendance, safety, cleanliness of the room. A few people in authority made up the rules, but didn't build an understanding of the rationale for the rules with kids. Some in authority did not enforce the rules, or silently disagreed with them in the first place. Good grief, if we can't take the time to come up with and enforce a simple set of lunchroom procedures and guidelines, where will we end up?
My sarcastic, pessimistic view:
Quit hammering on the rules. The kids need input and some sense of control. Just be nice to the kids and it’ll all work out. Let them sit where they want, move when they want. Doesn’t matter if attendance taking is a sham. Doesn’t matter if dozens of kids are not where they ought to be during lunch time for the simple purpose of taking attendance. Doesn't matter that a few kids will be slobs and throw food and garbage, or just leave it on the floor. As long as they can be with their friends that’s all that matters. They’re reasonable people. It’s no big deal, right? We aren't trying to be control freaks!
Problem is, this lack of organizational cohesion from those in authority wreaks havoc elsewhere. We end up in our classrooms with all sorts of situations, kind of like education on demand. We give an assignment in class. We give due dates. We give ample work time in class. Then, when someone actually enforces a due date and holds the kids to the rules, there’s a mad scramble. Some will demand extra time. They will expect the teacher to be be flexible and go the extra mile, or stay after school and teach the lesson again. Or they will ask to stay in at recess to do the work. "Adjust yourselves to me! My needs and my way of doing things are what matters." Hey, children, if you want flexibility on the one hand and cooperation, then you’ve got to quit arguing and resisting on the other! Don’t turn a simple lunch time routine into a war over your convenience of seating. And teachers, we had better get our heads together over this lunch room stuff and the many other procedures and expectations we work with.
We need to become very adept at setting up systems and ways of doing things that are manageable, and that reflect our care and authority to provide for our students, and that also considers their needs and their value as people.
What kind of school do we want to work in? Shouldn't it be a place where the kids and the adults work together and aren't in contest with each other over who's in charge?
Our challenge is to work out our authority together, justly and for the benefit of our students.
GB
