My first
administrators were (inordinately?) proud of their German heritage. As I’ve
noted elsewhere, stereotypes can cheat both the typer and the typee, but
generally do not arise in a vacuum. German culture is not known for its
empathetic qualities, and Rich Eichhorst’s and Siegfried Messner’s “all in”
embracement of their Germanity (yes, spell-check, I know it’s not a real word)
led them to some insensitive, at least, and more likely offensive behaviors. At
least one person was offended, for sure.
One or both of
these administrators had managed to procure some Nazi memorabilia (Messner’s
father had been an unrepentant member of the SS, a fact he related often,
without any seeming embarrassment), including some rubber stamps that included
the swastika. They got great amusement sending each other notes with those
stamps clearly displayed.
I had not yet ventured
into the Church of Righteous Indignation, so I mostly thought they were weird
and just kind of nodded pleasantly. That I was a new teacher and they were my
bosses is the only excuse I can offer. Fortunately, the practice didn’t last
that long.
The school
secretary* (as they were called then) was Lena Duggan, who had emigrated from
England. She put up with their nonsense for a while, then informed them that
she had spent too much time unconscious in a London hospital from a Luftwaffe
air attack to find their shenanigans one bit amusing, that she was offended,
and they needed to knock it off. Thus did the swastika quickly disappear at
Hancock. Just as an outgunned Britain held off the more powerful Germany, so
did a feisty English ex-pat bring two grown (sort of) men to their senses, if
not their knees.
* An aside for current and prospective teachers: the
school secretary, or administrative assistant if you need or want more
syllables, is, hands down, the most important person in a school. If she (and
they have universally been women in my experience) is not your friend, you need
to work on that. If you haven’t already discovered, nothing changes when an
administrator is out of the building, but everything goes downhill very quickly
should the secretary be gone for more than an hour, which is why so many tend
to grab lunch at their desks or in a cubby-hole around the corner. Cleaning up the mess created by their absence is just one more task for these school building heroines.
No comments:
Post a Comment