The Blame Game

It's so easy to place blame on someone else. The past few days have been spent preparing for the upcoming school year. I've visited with colleagues, written lesson plans, and sat in a few a lot of meetings. The administration has put together inspirational chats and videos, we've talked about procedures, and gotten to know each other. Overall, it has been a lot, but it's necessary.

On one of the first days of professional development, my superintendent talked about placing blame on other people. If something goes wrong in our classrooms or even in the district, it's easy to start pointing fingers. All the students weren't proficient in reading (nearly impossible), so we look to the 1st grade team. Joe Shmoe can't figure out an algebraic equation, and we begin to wonder what is happening in the junior high classrooms. Obviously, it can't by my fault.

What if instead of placing blame, we took responsibility? Even further, what if we addressed the issue and tried to make it better. I read a devotion this morning from Debbie Griffith. She talked about blaming and how we often follow up apologies with a BUT. "I'm sorry, BUT you really upset me." By adding the BUT, we don't even hear the apology, mostly because it loses it's meaning. What if we stopped right after the apology? "I'm sorry."

This "blame game" is toxic. Pointing a finger at someone else doesn't make the problems go away. It doesn't make me feel better. We are imperfect sinners. God forgives us, and we need to do the same for those around us.