Grunts

I began my carrier as a School Teacher instructing eighth grade American History classes. I taught the same lecture six times a day to large classes of barely pubescent boys and girls with very little light behind the eyes. My lunch break was a chance to escape the “adolescents” and fraternize with my colleagues in the faculty lunch room. There, for 180 plus lunch breaks, I sat and listened to the teachers at our school complain about the administration, the parents, the students, and the School District. Their most pointed attacks were always against the Principal and his Vices; how they did nothing, didn’t know what they were doing, and how our principals were paid too much for doing too little.

At the end of the year I was lucky enough to escape the Jr. High and take up my present position at the High School. The physical and mental changes that occur in students between the ages of thirteen and fifteen are truly miraculous. I will always be thankful to the dedicated Elementary and Jr. High teachers that prepare my students for high school and forever be grateful that I get to work with these students once they have achieved cognition.

That first year at the high school I determined that I would not eat my lunch in the faculty room. In the twenty plus years of lunch alone I have perhaps sacrificed some friendships, but I have also spared myself thousands of bitch sessions

My small but intense administrative experience, I run Boy Scout Camps, has taught me that for all their sincerity, those who are not in charge cannot possibly understand all the challenges faced by those who are. It is so easy from the narrow point of ones own daily experience to fault those who have responsibility for and a grasp of much more. Thus it became too painful for me to listen to the same old, same old attacks on my Principal by those who had no comprehension of what he has to face.

One afternoon I was listening to a local radio talk show, the commentator was complaining about the salaries of administrators in the schools, insisting that they did nothing while getting paid more than the teachers “in the trenches” doing the real work of the school. My phone call actually got through to Mr. “Right”. I told him that it would be impossible for me to do my job as a teacher if it wasn’t for the Vice Principals that deal with all the problems of the school day in day out while I spend my time doing exactly what I want to be doing. The radio guy hung up on me.

I watch as our Vice Principals organize and coordinate all the “programs” placed on the school by National, State, and County officials; while they organize activities, attend all extracurricular activities and then have to deal with gangs, fights, drugs, angry parents, my mistakes, my disruptive students, and on and on and on. And then they get spit on by the students whom they seek to keep in school, the parents whose children the administrators seek to serve, and the teachers whose classes are made possible by these Principal’s service.

Last week, I was in the final session of the class I have been taking at WSU on Colonial America. The lecturer had been assigned to discuss modern manifestations of Colonial thought. While pointing out that the American military was now using military techniques developed to fight Indians in the French and Indian war, he mentioned Robert D. Kaplan’s *Imperial Grunts* claiming that the only way to really know how the military worked was to do as Kaplan has done - as my Professor put it - to talk only to privates, corporals, sergeants, and first lieutenants. I have not read *Imperial Grunts* nor, do I believe, has the Professor. His one reference to “using French and Indian War tactics” was no doubt fished off the internet. Be that as it may, I strongly disagreed with him that only the underlings have a true picture of “The War”. When I voiced my objection, a crusty old fellow who is quite open about his military service, jumped in to scold me. “If I have never been there, I don’t know what I am talking about.” To which I gave the above explanation of the faculty room grumblers. Of “teachers” who know nothing about the general operation of the “plant”, griping continually about things they do not fully understand. Later reference by the Professor to the implementation of the Injun fighting techniques in the War on Terror clearly indicated top down as well as “bottom up” adaptability in our military. But the point was made; those who gripe the loudest are often those who understand the least about “the big picture”. While the concerns of the “privates” must be addressed, as they are indeed the ones in the trenches, doing away with the folks on top just because the grunts don’t see the need for them is extremely short sighted, whether dealing with the operation of a school, an Army, or a Nation.

Of course, when enemies of those “in charge” are seeking allies in supplanting them, they can often find disgruntled, and usually ignorant, underlings ready to complain bitterly about the “management”. Yeas ago, when I was called on to fix a broken Boy Scout Camp in California, those who wanted to seem me fail actually held secret meetings “up canyon” with my employees looking for those who would complain against me in order to get ammunition to call for my removal. Fortunately for me, and I dare say for the camp, there were loyal “grunts” in the crew who were willing to put their faith in my efforts, even though they did not understand them completely. Thus the griping of the dissatisfied was countered by the support of the faithful.

Years ago, at my camp in Wyoming, a boy died of a heart attack. A few weeks later I had a disagreement with one of the young staffers who worked for me. In the week following his reprimand, he told a flood of lies and half truths to the scout master of the troop he had been assigned to as camp friend. That scout master returned home to write a letter to the National Office accusing me of a flood of failures that seemed to indicate that my crew and I had failed the boy who died and had somehow caused his death. The letter was forwarded to my Scout Executive and he brought it to me. Though each of the lies was easily dispelled by the presentation of the truth, the hurt and damage done by such disloyalty and bitterness was great. By the time the letter came to light, I had already sent the staff member home for other reasons; so I was spared any direct confrontation with him on the subject. Years later I received a letter from him. He was on an LDS mission and wrote of how guilty he felt for what he had said and done in a fit of anger and a desire to hurt me. “Would I please forgive him?” The letter is still in my files – it has not been answered.

It is with such experiences, of no real significance in the world, that I watch the attack by those out of power and out of the know on President Bush, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and others in positions of responsibility. The truth of their successes is manifest in the safety and success of our nation, but the bitter bitching around the lunch room table continues by those who are out of the loop and long for self aggrandizement, a bigger “paycheck”, or to do malicious mischief to those who bear the real burdens of responsibilities. It would be wise for the people of this nation to consider the motivations and the knowledge of those who find fault.