Your resistant teachers aren't the problem (this is)

Why are you still carrying her?

That's the question the old monk asked his younger companion after they'd walked for an hour in complete silence.

Earlier, they'd come across a woman who needed help crossing a stream. Despite their vow not to have contact with women, the older monk picked her up, carried her across, and set her down safely on the other side.

The younger monk was furious.

"How could you break our vow?" he said. "This is what we live for, and you just..."

The older monk turned to him calmly: "Yes, I did break the vow. But I also let go of the woman an hour ago. Why are you still carrying her?"

Here's what that parable reveals about struggling schools.

I was on a coaching call this week with a principal facing dismal test scores, budget cuts, and a staff that deflects every conversation about improvement.

The outdoor education program that once made her school special? Now it's draining resources from academics.

The teachers who've been there 15 years? They spend every meeting recounting how they've been wronged by the district.

New initiatives are met with: "We don't have time. We're overworked. This is unfair."

Sound familiar?

Here's what makes this situation different from typical resistance: These teachers genuinely love their school. They chose to work there. They're passionate about what they do.

But they're still carrying the woman across the river.

The brutal truth about victim mentality in schools.

When your longest-tenured staff spend more time recounting past wrongs than building future solutions, they're not just resisting change.

They're teaching everyone around them that being wronged is more important than moving forward.

And that’s a problem.

The new teachers? They're doing the work. They're implementing the data-driven strategies. They're ready to make changes.

But they're being held back by colleagues who are still angry about budget cuts from 2010.

You can't build an Automatic School™ when half your team is stuck dragging the past into every conversation.

So what do you do about it?

Start by asking yourself: What do these resistant teachers actually want?

Not what they say they want (more resources, less accountability, the "good old days").

What do they really want as educators?

What were their hopes and dreams when they first came to your school?

Because here's what I've learned coaching hundreds of school leaders: People don't resist change. They resist being changed.

But when you can help them reconnect with their original purpose — the reason they became teachers in the first place — something shifts.

They stop carrying the woman across the river.

They put her down.

And they start walking forward again.

If you're leading a school where your veteran teachers are stuck in a 15-year grudge loop, then it's time we talk.

I've worked with hundreds of school leaders facing this exact challenge. The ones who break through don't do it by adding more PD or creating another improvement plan.

They do it by having the courage to ask the right questions and the skill to facilitate the conversations that actually change things.

We'll dig into what's really holding your staff back and map out a strategy that doesn't require you to be the hero — just the architect of something better.

Your job isn't to carry everyone across the river. It's to help them learn to walk again.

Keep Making a Ruckus,

Danny

PS …The principal I coached? By the end of our call, she had a completely different perspective on her "resistant" teachers. Sometimes all it takes is reframing the problem. If you want help doing that for your school, let's talk.