As many will remember, I posted a rather bitter rant last week about my wife’s being passed over for a teaching job she was already doing. I’m considerably less bitter now, but the further news we received today was rather telling, so I thought I’d share.
Of the two job openings (of identical description) Sabrina was up for, one went to a teacher already tenured in the district and with significant experience. This decision, while not smart, given that they took someone who already was working for them and shuffled them, leaving another opening to be filled, is at least defensible, given her resume. The other job went to the fellow who subbed for my wife’s long-term sub position when she took her eight weeks for maternity this spring. Of note? This person has no master’s degree and only provisional teaching certification, and no experience beyond a few years of day subbing, as opposed to my wife’s master’s degree and certification along with close to a decade of service to the district as sub, long-term sub (a whole different beast), and teacher’s assistant, all while waiting patiently for the chance to do the job she lives for.
I couldn’t ask for better proof of the clear stupidity that went into this decision process. My guess, given that this follows a recent trend of hiring male teachers when superior female teachers were available, is that either a) someone got chummy with the (also male) principal and politicked his way to a job, or b) there’s an actual discriminatory principle at work here whose reasons are obscure to me. In either case, a disservice was done, both to Sabrina and to the children who begged to have her back even after they’d been handed over to this fellow for eight weeks.
Remember folks, YOU are paying for this. This is the incompetence you are being forced to buy for your children’s education. I see such a bright future…
