They are just following orders? Hate to put it like that, but there sure is a lot of that going around these days.
> They are just following orders? <
It’s all a matter of degree. In my long teaching career, I received a few orders that I considered to be more than just wrong. They orders were evil. I simply ignored them. And luckily, I got away with it.
But I - and my colleagues - also received many orders that were just plain stupid. What to do then? You work around them as best you can. You do the best for your students as you can, and plead ignorance if you are caught deviating from the script.
Since I’m on a roll, let me give you an example of an evil order, and a stupid order (follow-up to my post #56).
An evil order: I once was given a stack of college scholarship forms for my homeroom. I was told to give them out to minority students only. To hell with that. I ignored that order. My homeroom students - black and white - were mainly poor kids. So everyone got a form. Luckily I never got in trouble for that.
A stupid order: Do not score a test less than 50% (I’m not kidding here). So if a student does nothing on a test, you must give him 50 points. Very stupid. And very counterproductive. But it’s not a hill to die on. So 50% it is.