At a previous school I worked at there was an incident that I think typifies a huge mistake often made by administrators in education. The school in question had an exercise room with weights and treadmills for P.E. classes as well as faculty use. The school’s policy was that teachers could not use the gym during the school day; even during their prep periods when the gym wasn’t being used by students. Even the P.E. teachers could use the exercise room between classes; everyone was to be working during there prep period. Furthermore, the school had a smoking area and teachers were allowed to smoke during their prep periods.
There are two disturbing thoughts in this policy. One, it comes from the point of view that teachers can’t be trusted to use their time in a professional manner. Two, it favors smoking over physical exercise as an acceptable activity for teachers to model to students.
Teachers often work late into the evening and on weekends grading and planning, they should be allowed to use a prep period for promotion of health, which research has shown to improve worker performance. If a teacher chooses to exercise during a prep period and do school work after school, why is it a problem? This policy tries to make a blanket statement of distrust for an entire faculty; rarely do such ideas work out. Teachers need to see trust and support from administration in order to perform well in the work place. If there is a teacher who is not working well and using their prep period to exercise, it is better to address the issue with the individual teacher; not a blanket policy.
The smoking verses working out simply shows a lack of clear thinking on the part of the administration. If you are going to not promote the idea of teachers modeling a healthy life style to students, the promotion of smoking shouldn’t be tolerated either.
NYA NYA NYA!!
