The shepherd is like the sheepdog

At least in the mind of a sheep.

The sense I’ve had of headmasters for some time now is that they’ve lost sight of the difference between their staff and schoolchildren. To them, everyone is merely a pupil waiting to be chastised.

Vlad had another tantrum at us on Monday, which was entirely unnecessary if he was half as competent as he likes to think he it. If he’d had the HODs to dispatch a few forget-ye-nots about things that we have to do on a regular basis, we might not be in a position of having scramble desperately to catch up.

Better still, he might recall that we lost quite a few old lags last year, but he seems to think that a bunch of jet-lagged newbies will recall what they should be doing, having been told about it a single time.

He also seems to forget that the notebooks are unwieldy things to have to deal with. The plastic covers are probably the worst part, but the size (A4), the spiral binding, and the weight don’t help. B5 (B4? Not quite sure about B-sizes), cardboard cover, stapled – just like the exercise books I had when I was at school.

Nor do I have my pupils use their notebooks for anything but classwork. What gets marked, what receives more detailed feedback is uploaded to Managebac. That also takes time, which then gets drawn out because other things such as pointless box ticking get in the way.

I know what will happen – everyone will cut more corners than a Chinese motorist. I wouldn’t be surprised if quite a number of people have been using class time to satisfy Vlad’s unreasonable demands.

The whole business is, of course, to further Vlad’s ambitions.

It’s with some irony I report that Dmitry has been praising the standard of my marking. Why is this ironic? Because I’ve also heard that the boys rely on me for information because Dmitry isn’t really doing his job. In addition (sorry, shouldn’t be using essay-style language), Shylock isn’t intending to return, and the Lone-Star Kid probably won’t be either.

The question is how many people have already decided not to return because of Vlad’s petulant behaviour.