The conflict I faced this last month at work was with a higher administrator. I was assigned the task of working with a particular challenged student and providing him with a one on one attention. After one month of working with him, the administrator brought in a psychologist to observe the child for 15 minutes and based on that short time, she turned in her assessment. IN the assessment, the psychologist pointed out to all the things that I was not doing. I thought this was extremely unfair because I had been doing all of those things and more during the course of 30 days.
When I went up to the administrator, I told her it was unfair what they were doing. I communicated this in a very courteous manner and abided by the three R’s. The administrator was able to see my point of view and assured me that they would schedule an observation at least three different whole days of the week and not just a mere 15 minutes. I think what diffused the situation was acting with respect because the administrator was frustrated and I was very upset. Like two professional adults, we were both able to meet in the middle and compromise, just like the NVC rules suggest. While it is very easy to just point a finger at somebody else, this is extremely wrong.
At first, the psychologists remarks made me look like a careless, irresponsible person which I am not. In this case, I felt attacked because this person copied all the administrators in my school in the email she sent.
I am so sorry that you had to experience this, but I have found that often "experts" think that they can make decisions and conclusions about things after such short periods of time. I have had just such a conversation with one of these "experts" and she told me that if they are trained well enough and know what they are looking for they are able to tell what is or is not wrong with a child after only 15 minutes. This just is not true. We have a couple of "difficult" children in our room and 15 minutes is not enough time to observe their behaviors. These children need to be observed for a full day over several days. I am glad that you were able to discuss the situation with your administrator in a respectful manor and that she was able to listen to your side.
ReplyDelete