Principal Threatened To Fire New Teacher For Not Having Enough Decorations In Their Classroom
The teachers are expected to pay for the decorations out of pocket.
Paula VV | Shutterstock Teachers have a lot on their plates, from drafting lesson plans and grading assignments to dealing with misbehaving students and demanding administration. It seems we must add decorating to that list, as one first-year was reprimanded for having too sparse a classroom.
The problem with that notion, however, is that schools generally don't supply teachers with a stipend for decorating. This means a fun and festive classroom is funded entirely by teachers who are already overworked and underpaid.
A principal threatened to fire a new teacher for not having enough decorations in their classroom.
“We had someone from the district come by to do a tour of our school,” the educator explained in a Reddit post. “She was apparently distressed by the lack of posters and decorations in my classroom.”
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This district official did not keep her feelings to herself. Instead, she shared them with the teacher’s principal.
“Later on, my principal took me aside and said that I needed my classroom to look better and mentioned the fact that my teaching credential is provisional for now,” they shared. “The implication was that he would get rid of me if I didn’t practically wallpaper my room with posters because the administrator wanted it that way.”
The first-year teacher confessed they didn’t know where to begin or what to use in order to decorate their classroom.
“The thing is this is my first year really teaching and my classroom had nothing in it when I arrived,” they stated.
“So as I am studying the curriculum, doing the work to get my credential, and managing hyperactive students, I also need to be buying and making posters with my limited time/money/energy.”
“I’m really annoyed by this,” they concluded.
Commenters certainly sympathized with the new teacher, suggesting everything from ignoring the principal's directive to assigning art projects to the kids to use as decoration.
The benefits of classroom decor are hard to quantify.
While it’s certainly understandable that this teacher hasn’t had enough time or resources to personalize their classroom, data shows that decorating does have its benefits.
Education Week stated, “Studies have shown the visual environment of a student can impact their attention and learning. A colorful, welcoming environment can assist in making students feel welcome in the classroom, which may be sorely needed.”
However, while this suggests that it’s important for classrooms to be decorated, other studies have found the opposite to be true.
A study from the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology found that students actually perform better in classrooms with fewer visual stimuli.
“While teachers have good intentions when decorating, many classrooms end up being ‘sensory-rich’ in a way that ‘could hamper children’s learning gains rather than help,’ according to psychologists Pedro Rodrigues and Josefa Pandeirada, who co-authored the study,” Edutopia said.
A balance must be struck between an engaging classroom that is appropriately decorated and one that is overstimulating. While this teacher’s bare classroom may not be the ideal, they certainly don’t want to go too far in the other direction either, despite what their administration said.
Teachers usually pay for classroom decor, making decorating even harder.
The National Education Association noted that the average salary for teachers in the U.S. is $69,597, while it’s just $44,530 for a teacher just starting out. Of course, many teachers also make far less.
Typically, teachers have to pay for classroom decorations themselves and are not reimbursed — a big demand for teachers already living off of a minuscule salary.
CNN shared the story of Chicago teacher Sarah Adkins, who typically spends $300 to $500 “on supplies, teaching resources and decorations to make her classroom less bare and more warm and inviting to her young students.”
So, while there are certainly benefits to decorating a classroom, administrators must also note how hard it is for teachers to personally fund it. This teacher was right to be concerned.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.