This is a message I received today from my school district's "Chief Academic Officer"

[Anonymous]

Embarrassingly awful writing. It's almost worse that no one stopped it from going out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“COVID is a big problem in our community. We are going to pretend that planning engaging lessons will solve it.” There’s the email.

We get an "attendance insider" email every month.

[Anonymous]

I’m still trying to figure out what that all of that fluff is actually trying to say.

[Anonymous]

I’ve seen poor writing like this from administrators frequently, in the last ten years. As a teacher, I want to whip out my red pen.

[Anonymous]

Yikes. Also annoying is the insinuation that it's on TEACHERS to get the students to school. I've taught in an urban setting with major attendance issues and almost always kids who don't come to school aren't coming because of no transportation, mom's at work, dad overslept, sleep deprivation, etc. "Pushing for engaging lessons from our educators" because you think that'll move the needle on attendance doesn't get at the root of the issue. It blames the teacher for factors that are completely outside of their -- and often the student's -- control.

[Anonymous]

Very odd writing style. The content of the message is equally strange. But seriously, it's really weird to be obsessed over a few errors or whatever.

[Anonymous]

I would find this infuriating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yikes. Also annoying is the insinuation that it's on TEACHERS to get the students to school. I've taught in an urban setting with major attendance issues and almost always kids who don't come to school aren't coming because of no transportation, mom's at work, dad overslept, sleep deprivation, etc. "Pushing for engaging lessons from our educators" because you think that'll move the needle on attendance doesn't get at the root of the issue. It blames the teacher for factors that are completely outside of their -- and often the student's -- control.

Administrators are taught that teacher quality is always the disease and the cure to any problem. It’s a way to blame teachers for any problem and to dump more responsibilities on them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“COVID is a big problem in our community. We are going to pretend that planning engaging lessons will solve it.” There’s the email.

I just got out of an attendance meeting where administrators were blaming parents for keeping their kids home and telling us teachers to do everything we could to encourage students to come every day.

I'm like "Not if they are sick thought, right??"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m still trying to figure out what that all of that fluff is actually trying to say.

"Please hassle parents when they keep their kids home, and make it a hassle for sick kids to miss school, but don't do it **so** overtly that the school gets blamed for encouraging kids to come to school sick."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m still trying to figure out what that all of that fluff is actually trying to say.

In the middle of fall semester, truancy increases. Robo-administrator is trying to encourage parents to pay more attention to their kids and make sure that they actually go to school. Especially those who have high schoolers who have open campuses. I frequently drop my kids off at their ES and then head to a Panera that is near a local high school to get breakfast. I have not made a visit yet since school started that there wasn't at least one group of teens who were there hanging out, on their phones and getting food and just goofing off. While I respect that many of them may have open periods where they are allowed to leave campus, I would also bet that some of them skipped school just to hang out with their friends.

Robo-admin is claiming that the school is working hard to adjust lesson plans to be more interesting in the hopes that kids will want to be in school. Not really that effective of a carrot. Some kids (also many adults) just don't want to learn and work and will look for any chance to goof off.

[Anonymous]

Tell your students to come to school sick. Is that the message?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m still trying to figure out what that all of that fluff is actually trying to say.

In the middle of fall semester, truancy increases. Robo-administrator is trying to encourage parents to pay more attention to their kids and make sure that they actually go to school. Especially those who have high schoolers who have open campuses. I frequently drop my kids off at their ES and then head to a Panera that is near a local high school to get breakfast. I have not made a visit yet since school started that there wasn't at least one group of teens who were there hanging out, on their phones and getting food and just goofing off. While I respect that many of them may have open periods where they are allowed to leave campus, I would also bet that some of them skipped school just to hang out with their friends.

Robo-admin is claiming that the school is working hard to adjust lesson plans to be more interesting in the hopes that kids will want to be in school. Not really that effective of a carrot. Some kids (also many adults) just don't want to learn and work and will look for any chance to goof off.

It wasn't sent to parents. It was sent to staff in the district.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Embarrassingly awful writing. It's almost worse that no one stopped it from going out.

Why would they?

He is “your leader,” after all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very odd writing style. The content of the message is equally strange. But seriously, it's really weird to be obsessed over a few errors or whatever.

Dear hipster,

I believe the word is spelled “whatevs” by your generation (not that grammar matters, “or anything”).