Manila’s camirilla - Staff development day
It has to be fun. All the other stuff is nice: significant, socially
conscious, politically progressive, intellectually challenging, emotionally
engaging, artistically pleasing; but for the long haul, professional development has to be fun. Like playing
music or gardening or cooking or exercising or arguing. If it gets too
serious or dull, the pension and the summers are the only things that
keep you hanging in. Pensions and summers aren’t worth it, even at my age.
We’ve been having fun. A camirilla has formed around Manila
adoption at Gal, gathering haphazardly in the cluttered and unswept library
office. Folks appear and disappear - Brodie, Moffett, Heskin, Arquillos,
Banos, Barrios, Chiu / Grinell (dynamic principal and secretary duo), O’Brien, Barrett, Zimberhoff, Carter, Matsumoto,
Marshall, Machtay, McDowell, Ring, King, Mar-Beshears, Gill (shy), Aramendia, Olea (who’s threatening Craig’s List with local competition), et al. They camp out in the
research nook or the main room during a classroom-denied prep period,
borrow or return a video, read the Chronicle or a magazine, grade papers, make a cup of coffee, store a lunch
in the refrigerator, look for a book, ask to order something,
search for a hiding colleague, or wonder again how to include a picture
in a web page. At some point, we laugh.
We’re collaborating on the No Laugh Left Behind act. (The White House
is contributing.) It is the most overlooked aspect of professional
development.