Rumor Has It!!

As I come to the close of another school year, I wonder what theme would sum up this year. For the purpose of this blog, I am going with "rumor has it."

I have written about the triangle as the main theme of success in education. I continually strive to maintain the triangle, but the angles sometimes get distorted. For me, these disruptions have recently been caused by rumors.

Working with my staff, I have learned that many times teachers will say, "I heard that I am switching assignments, switching classrooms, or moving children." Each time the question is asked, " Where did you hear that? " The response is "I heard a rumor." Then when the truth is spoken or explained it is a simple response, "Oh!"

Parents have regularly visited with me throughout the year and voiced concerns over something they heard. "I heard this teacher is retiring, this teacher is better, this child did this", etc. Once again I ask, "Where did you hear that?" "Well, someone told me" and the story continues.

As a society we teach young children to "mind your own business". Why don't we, as adults, do the same? The amount of time spent explaining something that wasn't even true is scary. It takes away from the good stuff, like educating our children.

Perhaps we can put an end to the rumors and work with the facts. In our society, we have access to so much information but we sometimes lose track of the facts. Maybe we could stop speaking about each other, stop giving false information, and take a wait and see approach. Who knows? Maybe it would be better than what we have now.