Working With a Cast of Characters

It's not that everything I learned comes from Seinfeld, but there is definitely a Seinfeld story, reference, or character for most occasions.  This has been the most entertaining post yet, recalling all of the ridiculous scenes and sayings.  It’s the characters that this blog post is about.  Besides your students, who surrounds you in your professional life?  Who’s your Kramer, barging in with zany ideas, and who’s your George, requiring more attention and effort than you often have patience to give?  And of course, who’s your Newman?

Jerry Seinfeld is the ultimate observer. He observes, muses, and criticizes every bit of his life and surroundings.  As a comedian, His professional life is isolating, but his daily life is consumed with a constant traffic flow, often ridiculous interruptions, and cast of even more ridiculous characters. Can you identify?

Elaine is the consummate teammate. She will do anything for her friends, but isn’t afraid to push back- literally. She is a challenger without being discouraging. Elaine is comfortable in her own skin (you may recall the dance), brutally honest,  and endlessly patient with her friends’ antics. Every PLC could use a dose of Elaine to keep things real. 

Kramer is a dreamer and an innovator. Who else would install a garbage disposer in the bathtub?  When we talk about designing flexible space, Kramer takes the cake. Remember his hot tub apartment installation, or his his Merv Griffin talk show set? Kramer is an artist and a designer, from his fusilli-pasta sculptures to coffee-table book about... coffee-tables!  Then there is also the fact that most of his schemes are totally crazy, but he believes. That is an innovator’s mindset after all and every school or classroom could use his a little Kramer mojo!

George is the face of a fixed mindset. George has firm opinions and views and does not react well to deviation. While George’s go-to pessimism may not be advisable, there is a characteristic of a healthy skepticism that we can all use to evaluate any new situation, initiative, or product that may come our way to be sure it’s in the service of learning. 

His name is Newman.  We know those characters who predictably difficult to collaborate with. We may not have an individual nemesis like Newman, but it’s always helpful to identify (and prepare for) those whose effort may not align with our own.   

 There's only one Soup Nazi. It’s critical to identify those whose instinct it is to say no and shut us down. When you've been teaching long enough, you learn crafty ways to ask for things! Hopefully nobody is as severe as “The Soup Nazi,” but it always helps to strategize and prepare how to approach asking for something. 

No matter what the occasion or mood, Jerry always has a warm greeting for his Uncle Leo.  It’s a great reminder to set the tone and acknowledge or welcome whoever walks through your classroom or office door with a warm "Hello!" 

Mr. Costanza is extreme. He is loud and shares every bold idea, but he is also charismatic and creative (he invented a holiday, after all). In our classrooms or offices, Frank serves to remind us that elevating the tone, raising the voice, or intensifying the mood never helps to resolve conflict. 

Mrs. Costanza keeps Frank in check. While she can escalate any situation in an instant, Estelle capably deflects or returns his zaniness, and makes her voice heard!  There always needs to be a balance of strong opinions to maintain a dialogue.

Kenny Bania is comically optimistic. He is the character that sees “gold, jerry” in any material. While his judgement is questionable, his enthusiasm wins the day and models attitude over aptitude when necessary. Sometimes we all just need that cheerleader who tells us our ideas are gold.

J Peterman is full of himself and clueless, but somehow innocently, and wildly successful. He has no sense of the work others do in service of his position. We see these characters and remember to never lose focus on the service of learning, or why we got into this business in the first place- for them, not us!

FDR is the ultimate grudge. Kramer’s toxic and timeless grudge with Franklin Delano Romanowski (over receiving the evil eye) serves as a cautionary tale to let go of old bias, gripes, or differences before they turn into epic battles. 

Bob Cobb: he desperately wanted to be called “Maestro.” He is the ultimate example of someone who cares way too much about his title. We have heard it before: Leadership is action, not position. The Maestro would serve to get over himself and pay attention to those around him. I hope this doesn’t sound too familiar!

Jimmy was a pretty brief character, but memorable because he always referred to himself in the third person. While this is awkward and always distancing in a classroom, it also calls to mind the need for perspective. Sometimes we need to step outside of ourselves and our situation for an objective view. Just don’t be the narrate what you see!

Jack Klompus is another extreme personality. He is a neighbor/acquaintance/antagonist of Jerry’s parents and equal parts judgemental and short-tempered.  Jack is the example of finding misguided value and over-attachment to old ways and physical things (Astronaut pen? Cadillac?) to the point of resentment and damage to people and relationships.  Jack is another reminder to let go of the little things.   

Aaron spoke softly, but closely! Proxemics refers to our interpersonal space and physical closeness. Nobody models the discomfort of that space invasion like the “close talker.” We all know those students (or staff) who just don't seem to have that natural sense of space, and you can feel it instantly.  

Lloyd Braun shows there’s always someone to compete with.  Regardless of his character, personality, or even mental health, Lloyd Braun was always Mrs. Costanza’s model for how George should act and behave. Consequently, George could never shake the shadow of self-judgement against Lloyd.  Serenity now!

Puddy- Sometimes you just can’t judge a book by its cover, but then sometimes you can. I suppose Elaine saw something in David Puddy that made her crew put up with him.  He reminds us to try our best to trust the judgement of those we trust, even when we have doubt! 



This post was inspired by an awesome session I attended at the ETT conference by Dr. Beth Holland and David Quinn in which we were all reminded that "we are all Martys and we are all Georges." Thank you Beth and David!

**All characters and photos from Seinfeld, NBC-Universal

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