One of the things about being a principal is that all the major issues that affect our students have to, sooner or later, come across your desk. One of the things about being a principal with a lot of students who come from difficult situations (and really, that describes almost all schools these days) is that you see many, many situations that leave you with your head in your hands and frustrated by the limits of what we can do.
But until we resurrect "Boys Town" with some modern equivalent, we have to know that sometimes, the best we can do is create a safe haven in our schools. Sometimes, the best we can do is teach kids that adults can care about them, can be true to their word, and can actually act like adults are supposed to act. Sometimes, we have to do the best we can by our kids by just hugging them every day and trying to give them the skills that will hep them survive their own situations.
Those are the days when I come home and hug my kids just a little tighter. Those are the days that I am ever thankful for the accident of birth that put me into a household with two parents who loved me fiercely, who valued education, and who raised me to believe in myself, but to believe in others as well.
Those are the days when I realize the biggest gift my wife and I can give our sons is to make sure that there is never a moment when they do not know our love. Those are the days I realize that every book we read to them is a gift, that every hour we spend playing with them, every meal we eat together is a gift. And those are the days that I realize that the best thing I can teach them is to value every person, to meet the world with kindness and to have the humility that comes with the recognition of the gifts they have been given through an accident of birth.
So as we struggle with NCLB, and as we deal with trying to motivate classes of 33 students, and on the days we get frustrated by the kids we have a hard time reaching, let's remember how much of the lives of our students we don't see... and how so many of our kids have so much more to struggle through because of nothing more random than an accident of birth.
Well said, Chris. And we generally are bombarded with these cases in the first hour of every day. To me, the most needy (in a variety of definitions) are often the most precious students we have. We are fortunate to try to intercede on their behalf. Doesn't always work out the way we'd like, but it is what makes this job 100% human-centric.
It is one of the reasons I returned to a school environment after 9 years of central services and state dept responsibilities.
Not much can compare to the day-to-day in a school. One's sense of relevance can go unmatched there. And every day we are blessed with beautiful rays of sunshine.
On the flipside of the "Boys Town" cases, we have a lot of kids who have had the accident of being born with silver spoons in their mouths. This often proves to be quite another form of tragedy.
Posted by: Joe Poletti | October 02, 2007 at 04:44 AM
Nicely done.
May we never forget the human side of the business during our test craze phase.
Posted by: Mark Stock | October 02, 2007 at 02:22 PM