FSA Fail

What's the FSA, you ask? Family and School Association. It's a fancy modern term for the PTA.

In April, my school's FSA decided to hire photographers and take pictures of the kids, a la class picture day. Why class picture day in September wasn't enough, I don't know.

Anyway, a couple of weeks later, the photos were delivered and I was instructed to give the photos out to my homeroom. I couldn't remember collecting payment for these photos, so I remarked to another teacher that it was nice of the FSA to provide free portrait photos.

"Oh, they have to pay for them," the other teacher replied, "If they want to keep them. If they don't want to pay for them, they have to give them back."

Let's figure out what's wrong with this scenario.

These kids are 10-14 years old. Some will be reliable. Others will not. Some will turn in money for the photos and return the ones they haven't paid for. Others will throw the packet of photos to the bottom of their locker and forget about them.

The principal has been announcing every day for the last week for a return of the unpaid photos. Because "if you don't return them, the FSA will have to pay for them."

Notice how the principal is not teaching any sense of responsibility to these kids. He's basically telling them, "It doesn't matter if you are unreliable, someone else is going to cover your ass." (By the way, about 20% of the school didn't return anything. That's hundreds of dollars the FSA has to pay. Not the kids.)

Sorry Mr. Principal. Sorry parents. Sometimes, the teachers know the kids a lot better than you do.