Octoberfesters

Ah, October.  Raging summer heat in southern Texas has finally subsided and we actually got a little rain.  Still wearing short-sleeved shirts to Friday night football games, but clearly the sun is not baking the last drops of fluid out of all of us.  Seasons change, even here.

The change in seasons always coincides with changes in school climate as well, or so it seems to me.  We end the summer with the beginning of school, teachers pumped, kids excited, expectations for the year are always high, even in a year of budget cuts.  Parents develop routines for getting kids to and from school, kids learn their schedules, teachers, classes, and we begin the annual overindulgence in extra-curricular events. 

And then suddenly, usually right around the first progress reports and the first report cards, the climate changes in the schools, much like it does outside.  We begin the Octoberfesters.  That time of year when wounds happen and they fester.

It is from mid-October to early November that we get our first round of upset parents, frustrated staff, anguished athletes, and everyone appears to be operating on their last raw nerve.  I have more personnel problems and irate parents in October than any other month, though February is a close second.  Here are my theories regarding the onset of the Octoberfesters:

1.  Grades go out.  Suddenly hopes of honor roll and a full season of football are dashed for some.  Parents conclude it must the teacher, the school, something other than their child that is inhibiting the learning.  They get mad.
2.  Staff get their first paycheck of the new year in mid-September and it is never as large as hoped.  Higher insurance premiums, reductions in funding, frozen salaries, etc.  It may suddenly appear that "I am doing all this for how much?"
3.  Angry parents descend on frustrated staff, so staff get more frustrated and parents get more angry.
4.  Kids are tired, staff are tired, people start doing stupid stuff and move from highly motivated, rational professionals, to emotional basket cases.
5.  The football team loses.

Regardless, it happens every year.  Solid pros are aware of it and do more than muddle on, they lead on!  Knowing staff and constituencies are tired it becomes important to find ways to take a break, get some rest, do something fun and keep the main thing the main thing.  Leadership includes the managerial function of problem solving and conflict resolution, so practice that rather than problem creation and conflict initiation.  Take a breath, count to 10.  Public schooling, in my humble opinion, is the most important work in the USA and we have got to do our very best every day.

The Octoberfesters always disappear around the second week in November.  The sun sets sooner and we get inside earlier.  I think folks smell the holiday season coming.  Thanksgiving and Christmas never get here soon enough, but once we sense they are right around the corner, everyone cheers up!  

(Of course by February, as we end winter and head into spring, we will begin the Valentine Day Massacres, but that is another story.)

For now, chin up, lead on, and Happy Octoberfesters!