Keep your goals away from the trolls
The crabs could easily climb up the side of the cage and through the hole, but they do not. They stay in the cage. Other crabs come in and join them––long after the bait is gone.
Should one of the crabs realize there is no further reason to stay in the trap and attempt to leave, the other crabs will gang up on him and stop him. They will repeatedly pull him off the side of the cage. If he is persistent, the others will tear off his claws to keep him from climbing. If he still persists, they will kill him.
The crabs––by a force of the majority––stay together in the cage. The cage is hauled up, and it’s dinnertime on the pier.
The chief difference between these crabs and humans is that these crabs live in water and humans live on land.
Anyone who has a dream––one that might get him out of what he perceives to be a trap––had best beware of the fellow inhabitants of the trap.
The human crabs (we call them trolls) do not usually use physical force—although they are certainly not above it. They generally don’t need it. They have more effective methods at hand, and in mouth––“innuendo, doubt, ridicule, derision, mockery, sarcasm, scorn, sneering, belittlement, humiliation, jeering, taunting, teasing, lying, and a dozen others not listed in our thesaurus.”
~Anonymous
This fable reminds us to pay attention to colleagues and administrators who establish school culture, particularly to those who reign in threatening deviations from the norm. But while we are in the “cage” with our colleagues, we spend most of our time in private compartments. We are free to make moves on our own. We should remember this.
Unlike trolls, we are free to break from the crabs-in-the-cage pattern. We can choose not to employ “innuendo, doubt, ridicule, derision, mockery, sarcasm, scorn, sneering, belittlement, humiliation, jeering, taunting, teasing, lying, and a dozen others….” These traits indicate a type of conformity that leads to negative outcomes. Congeniality can mask this conformity. We teachers tend to be socially positive and think of ourselves as family. We prefer not to assess and critique one another.
Unless we choose to commit to collegiality––the sharing of responsibility for the successes of our teaching––we may restrict ourselves to do what we’ve always done, “stay together in the cage.” We miss opportunities to explore new ideas and pedagogies. And we may become susceptible to join with others to “pull him off the side of the cage,” he who yearns for something different and perhaps better.
~ ~ ~
As you read this fable, visualize yourself in your own space, in school or in a workplace, your compartment inside the “cage.” You wonder about your fellow “crabs” and how they perceive you. You may see yourself as one wanting to “climb up the side of the cage” and do it your way. But you may decide to keep your ideas to yourself.
When teachers observe troll behavior among their students, they are quick to intervene. It has you thinking about how to confront troll behavior in your colleagues. Whether in a school or workplace, you could share “Keep Your Goals Away From the Trolls” in a meeting––to suggest it to the principal for a faculty meeting or to a supervisor at work. These conversations may awaken ideas and approaches to shift from the complacency of ‘congeniality’ to the hard work of ‘collegiality.’ Essential for every school or company.
“Keep Your Goals Away From the Trolls” has obvious applications to other walks of life.
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forward” (Kierkegaard)
I write to bring ideas and methods from my life as a teacher in the latter half of the 20th century to help teachers and the public to “live forward” in this century. My latest book, Teacher in the Rye: Doing It My Way is available on Amazon. And I welcome comments here on my Substack or by email at frankthoms3@gmail.com.
