How does one keep from sounding catty themselves when wanting to address the problem of uneccesary cattiness?
I am about to risk sounding like a major hypocrite in light of the upcoming post about our speech and lives being inviting. I know this.
I apologize in advance.
But, doggone it!! Something came up, and it's not just an education issue. It's an issue for anyone in leadership be it parenting or whatever. Fill in the blank.
In an imperious tone that is all too common among those in power wherever they may be, the local superintendent was quoted on the front page of the local newspaper recently seeming to happily take all the joy out of the recent snow days (two!!!) the kids (and parents) have enjoyed by reminding them in a rather humorless way that they'll make it up, so don't get too happy ya little punks.
My immediate thought? Well, what a freakin' kill joy.
Ok, he didn't say "punks." But the tone.... jeez.
In his defense, I know that certain things can be lost in translation when it comes to the written word, and maybe the reporter didn't quote him exactly, thus making him sound more negative than he'd ever intended. This truly could have been the case.
But, assuming that wasn't the case this time, could he not have been a little more....I don't know...humorous or something about this? I mean, we all know that a snow day now means a make up day later. Duh.
"You have to make them up...the bad news is: For two Fridays in April, they're absolutely going to school." [emphasis mine]
Bwahaha!
Don't you hate it when people say, "The bad news is...." and you know that it doesn't really bother them at all to share it? In fact for them, it's not bad news at all. They kind of get off on it. It happens in lots of places.
When I was a kid in school, often somebody got all snarky sounding because they could and seemed to take joy in reminding us of our impending doom. At the point we'd retaliate, they'd get into a snit, and we'd say, "Rawr, rawr, ppphhtt pphhtt!" You know, the whole cat noise thing? Because people were acting catty/snarky? I'll admit, my inner child was making cat noises after reading the super's comments.
Not one of my shining moments, but quite possibly not really one of his, either.
So it made me want to yak in my coffee. He could have said the same thing (we have to make up school time missed because the state tells us we have to, which is another post for another time) with humor, with some tongue-in-cheek silliness, or something that would take the 'I'm-big-and-you're-little' tone out of things.
But, no.
I guess the lesson here is if you're in a place of power over people, don't take yourself too seriously. When you have to share information that is a serious downer, soften it with something funny, bend over backwards to take a gracious tone. Otherwise people just roll their eyes and peg you as an anal-retentive control freak which you may or may not be.
Just sayin' to be careful there, cowboy.
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