Letter: Administrators are holding teachers back

Monday, Sept. 17, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

This School District has major problems attracting and retaining top quality teachers. Why? From my discussions with friends teaching throughout this district, the morale of most teachers is at an all-time low. The problem is exacerbated by low pay and poor benefits, but really centers around poor administrative leadership.

The School Board and administrators are floundering and unimaginative in their efforts to improve programs. In my opinion they don't have a clue as to what excellence in education really is, and their lockstep, by-the-book dictatorial micromanagement philosophy is a negative, counterproductive disaster for the future of teacher morale and creative initiative, as well as student achievement.

School administrators are out of touch with realities of classroom teaching because they have distanced themselves from the real world of education that exists in classrooms. Many are young with minimal breadth and depth of teaching knowledge and experience, having left the classroom for more lucrative administrative salaries and less stressful work.

Their authoritarian micromanagement style discourages innovative and imaginative ideas of teachers while promoting curricula that are more akin to factory plans producing uniform cans of beans. Detailed lesson plans implementing rote memorization and regurgitation of facts instead of critical thinking skills and creative teaching are the mandate of too many authoritarian by-the-book administrators.

Many teachers view themselves as working in an insane asylum operated by the inmates. Is it any wonder this district cannot attract or retain the most talented teachers? We are continually losing our best educators because of lackluster administrative leadership.

Virgil A. Sestini, Las Vegas