Jives wrote: I am extremely competent, detail oriented, and cognizant of large systems. As I age, I begin to see levels and levels of cause and effect, motivation and behaviors. The deeper I look, the more I understand the basic underlying truths.
As a result, I have become supremely self-confident. The wealth of experience I have has given me insight into almost every situation I run into. Even situations I haven't experienced before, I find I can intuitively understand and recognize the solution to.
As a result....people think I'm arrogant.
I'm sure that I come off that way sometimes too, but I'm learning to be humble and keep my insights to myself. One side effect of this is that I have become very adept at politics. Something that is a very big part of a teacher's career.
Here's an example:
S, V, and SH are friends. They sit at the same table. D, M, and E are friends and sit at another table. E and SH are deadly enemies. V and D are deadly enemies. S and SH had a fight earlier in the year, but appear to be friends now. M hates V and SH. M told V that she was going to beat her up for what she said earlier. S is V's follower and does anything she wants. S attacked D earlier in the year, on V's say so. Now SH says she's going to beat up E for what she said about V.
Confused? Have you figured it out yet? This is the exact situation that I dealt with earlier today.
Here's the key: How does either group know what the other is saying, if they don't interact with each other at all and sit at different tables?
Answer: S. S stillholds a grudge against V for making her fight SH earlier in the year. She wants to break free from V's influence, but to do this, she must win the trust of D, M, and E. So she has been feeding them information on derogatory comments that V has been saying. this is risky, since if V finds out she is a traitor, she will be without any group at all, wwhich is death to a teenager.
So to hedge her bets, she's been returning with derogatory information from D, M, and E and feeding it to V to get her confidence.
Result: V destroys E, or E destroys V. Possibly, D, and M get involved too, and SH who has a short violent temper is bound to jump into the fray.
There's more: S knows that at this time of year, we don't just suspend kids who get in fights. We use a loophole that allows us to suspend a student for ten days pending an expulsion hearing, but since there are only ten days left until school's out, the hearing will never happen. It's our way of getting rid of troublemakers in the most volitile part of the year.
S. deliberately waited until that window to make her move. Which ever side is destroyed (or both) she comes out clean. Then, she joins forces with the survivors and begins next year with a solid power base.
Elementary, My dear Watson.
What was the question again? :wah:
