Authority

Case 1:

Last week, my headmaster announced that we would be giving the third years midterm exams that would not count towards their final grade. The other teachers seemed to be in favor of this, since they would be free from giving lessons during the week. I protested saying that since the third years would be taking comprehensive exams at the end of the term, I didn't want to lose precious lesson time, since I was still trying to get them caught up with the syllabus. The headmaster declined, saying that he was also behind in the syllabus, but that this was the only way to motivate students to do work (apparently, giving exercises and activities and going over solutions is not effective regardless of the fact that I have tried to encourage the other teachers to try it out). I knew that that was his final word.

I wrote an agriculture exam for them (I am no longer teaching agriculture, they self-study, but I promised them that I would help them track their progress), but left the chemisty and math exams unwritten. When the secretary asked me about them, I told her that I had taken care of everything myself (as in typing and making copies). Then I told my third years the plan. They were sworn to secrecy, but I was going to use the exam time for teaching. They were very excited by this plan. Everything went smoothly, and I was grateful not to fall further behind. No other staff member knows yet what I've done, so maybe I'm in the clear. The students won, I won and it seems like everyone else was not affected positively or negatively.

Case 2:

After I had filled everything in for the agriculture reports and handed them to the headmaster to be signed, I waited an hour before he handed them back to me with his signature to be submitted. While waiting for him to sign, I had tied up my loose ends at school for the afternoon so that I could travel to the district headquarters and submit them.

The papers were past their deadline, which was entirely my fault. That was also why I was so concerned with making sure that there wasn't any further delay. It is a 2 hour trip for me when transport cooperates (which is not as often as I'd like) and I knew that I would be cutting it close to arrive before the office closed. Still, I felt certain that it was worth a shot. If the vehicle didn't show, then I could just get back to school and get started grading papers. Right as I was at the gate to leave the school, the principal stopped me and said that I should just go the following morning, since I would not be able to arrive in time. I tried to protest, but to no avail. I could barely hide my scowl, as a bus drove past 5 minutes later meaning that I probably would have arrived in plenty of time. I was most dismayed because the afternoon was my free time, while the following morning, I would have to skip out on lessons (certainly not a concern to him).

The next morning I woke up early to catch the first vehicle out of town. I managed to arrive at the office without any problems. The office had only been open for 30 minutes when I arrived so most of the staff hadn't arrived yet. Still, they were able to direct me to Priscilla, the woman who would know what to do with everything. I arrived and greeted her and profusely apologized. She told me that she could not accept them, since the reports had already been collected. She gave me a number to call in Nairobi to find out what I should do. Then she added that if only I had come the day before, she would have been able to accept them. I left her sight before I let the scowl creep back across my face. I called the number in Nairobi and they told me that the only remedy was to deliver them in person to the Nairobi office. Fortunately, I will be in Nairobi anyway this weekend, but it will be incredibly hard to get to the office while they're open.

I seem to have lost in this case. Everyone else seems to be unaffected.

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I think there is a lesson to be learned in here about what happens when I do what my headmaster tells me to do.