Principal for a Day

I haven’t been back to school in eons, but I recently had an opportunity to return for a day — this time as principal, if only for a day

It’s done every year at local schools, I understand, and I’ve watched and photographed others in the community take a stint shadowing authentic principals in our education system.

On the appointed morning, I arose early, dressed for success and headed across the way to Prairie Elementary School where children from kindergarten to third grade age were expecting me.

Last week wasn’t the best weather for trekking, but I managed to get from my car to inside the school without being washed away by heavy rain or blown over by strong winds.

At least I didn’t have to stand at a bus stop like some of these kids do while waiting for a bus to take them to school and bring them back to their bus stop again.

One thing I have noticed on my daily rounds coming and going is how many kids have to stand in all kinds of weather waiting for buses if parents can’t be there with a nice dry car until the bus actually arrives.

Once I arrived at school, they gave me a cheerful welcome and briefed me on the day’s activities. Almost immediately, something exciting happened. Apparently some kind of vandalism had occurred. Someone had thrown a rock and broken a window. I pretty much missed most of the chaos, which happen just before I arrived. Believe me I was glad I wasn’t the real principal who had to notify authorities and deal with it until the superintendent took over.

My journalistic side was ready to dive in and take pictures, but because I missed all the real action, I just settled into the school office where some of the residual effects of the event were still lingering … the main topic of conversation.

Once it was time to see what principals do, I followed the leader to a few classrooms where I was introduced to the teachers and students. I was truly impressed with the lack of chaos in the classroom. It was extremely organized, children listening intently to the teacher and a teacher’s aide who shares duty in other classrooms as a tutor.

Today’s classrooms are filled to capacity and teachers have more than their share of students. It was good to see this school’s teachers have some help especially with special needs kids that require extra one-on-one assistance.

This school has a reward program in place and one of the rewards for good behavior along with good academics was the privilege of sitting with the principal and her guest, me during lunch in the cafeteria that day. I visited with the students as we dined.

Now, I haven’t eaten lunch at school for many, many years.

I do remember when I was in elementary school working in the cafeteria so I could have a hot lunch instead of the sack lunch my mother made. Now, Mom’s sack lunch was the envy of all my friends, but I took it for granted because it was more uptown to have a cafeteria lunch on stainless steel compartment trays.

My girlfriend in high school used to trade her $1.50 for my lunch and then I would go to the local burger shop for a soda and French fries — um, um, such a wholesome lunch.

Well at Prairie I got in line with the kids and had a cafeteria lunch. I was expecting something hot, but they served turkey sandwiches, chips, fruit and choice of milk or chocolate milk. It was a great lunch! Normally I don’t like sandwiches but this was really good — and on healthy whole wheat bread, too. Then came the movie. Oh boy a movie. I got so engrossed in the movie I forgot where I was. Then they shut it off before it finished. What, you shut it off. It’s not over … Oh yeah, I thought, we are at school and it’s back to class.

The rest of the day we visited class rooms and I learned a little from each visit, before heading back to the office for a special meeting with classified employees. What I noticed in the meeting was the camaraderie between principal and staff. They had a way of making a dreary day come to life with all the activities they were planning for the students in the weeks ahead. I also learned that when kids don’t get what they need at home — character building, motivation and positive attitudes — they get more than academics at this school.

It’s a different world today and sometimes it calls for schools to offer an extra hand when it comes to teaching a few social skills. Every student may not need this kind of boost, but many of them do.

My principal for day stint was refreshing and if more educational establishments followed this role model, and I’m sure others do, it would be a boost to society.