I often wonder about the language of the workplace. We refer to students as clients and staff in schools as human resources. Reminded me of a song from my youth, The Five Man Electrical Band. They wondered about the increased proliferation of signs and wrote a short note to Jesus about it while stopping in at a church along the way. Enjoy!
A human resources expert appeared
out of a shroud
mist-like.
I recoiled
What’s wrong?
Pleasantly enough asked
seemed off somehow
May be a sinister tone?
Did I say the wrong thing?
Or things?
I wonder
didn’t get the job
not even interviewed for that matter, plus
I got a security escort
wasn’t the first time
Human resources, you say.
Humph
I have questions
to hell with yours
I’ll ask mine
Are we compatible?
Can we date?
Where are humans mined?
do they mind?
What are they worth?
Raw and finished versions
Where is the human factory?
Are they reliable?
Can I get a warranty?
Can you exploit them?
or do they have a mind of their own?
do they mind?
Can we drill for them?
Do they fit in a pipe
To ship them, not smoke them
Do they depreciate?
Like a car, factory, or another normal asset?
a write-off?
or right off?
She seemed confused
perplexed perhaps
That must not have been in the book
I guess?
Tough to get a job
As a human being,
Not a human resource.
No offense intended to human resources people. You have a job to do. I guess.
About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope, nonviolence and its anticipatory relationship with the future, as essential elements to teaching and learning.
Academic publications can be found at Ivon Gile Prefontaine on ResearchGate
Teacher as Transformer 
Some of your questions are worth exploring – ‘do we depreciate?’ An interesting way to look at ‘resources’ in a new light! 🙂
A colleague and I talked about it today. She provided considerable food for thought for a fertile mind.
Networking is definitely a good way in which to grapple with new ideas! I always enjoy a good session with a colleague over a cup of coffee!