I worked at an exceptionally bad institution but my “resistance” was really a rather mild challenge to the college president at an open staff meeting. I was fired the next day without notice or written explanation. My union abandoned me, my supervisor used things I’d told her in confidence against me and the young person who I was mentoring ratted me out like the weasel he turned out to be. No one openly defended me, though people did quietly sympathize with my obvious lack of knowledge of how the world works.

Obviously not all institutions are this whacky but, it surprised me how abandoned I felt by people who had been my colleagues moments before. As cool as education is in my mind it seems at the core that strategic compromise is the only way to survive. That’s what I learned in school.