Lesson Learned

You know, I've learned a really important lesson about being a principal over the last couple of weeks. As you know I'm getting my masters in educational leadership and hope to someday become a principal. I've learned that principals walk a fine line between advocating for students and sticking up for teachers. Lately one of our principals hasn't been walking that line very well, which has stirred up some angst among some teachers including myself. It's not a great situation when a principal practically interrogates a teacher over an accusation from a parent over something as simple as calling a girl's yellow pant ridiculous. A - I didn't say that, B - if I did say it and hurt her feelings, why can't she ask for an apology, C - calling her pants ridiculous wouldn't even make it on the top 100 list of mean things a teacher has said, and D - the girl, when asked, couldn't even remember what the principal was talking about. Another teacher was interrogated over a much more serious accusation (it turned out that the teacher didn't do anything wrong), but I learned a very valuable lesson: Each time she has interrogated someome, her trustability erroded. Being a principal is tricky. I don't know why I want to do it to myself, but someone has to take the lessons learned and put them to good use.