Like most school administrators I had a high opinion of myself as a deputy principal and was looking forward to the challenge of steering the ship in his absence.
Like most deputies I had harboured for some time the ambition to become a principal. I had held a number of middle management positions and had just begun a PhD in educational administration. I believed I had completed my apprenticeship and was ready to take the reins.
I had always been a change agent with strong views on education and what hallmarks distinguish the very best schools. Here was my chance to make a difference, to lead and create.
This, and another tour of duty when the next principal took a term off, convinced me that being a principal was not what it was cracked up to be!
Early in the term my first School Council meeting was more than depressing. The chairman was a buffoon who liked the sound of his own voice and the meeting dragged on interminably into the night.
The Council did not understand that the day-to-day running of the school is not the purview of School Boards.
One female Council member raised a serious concern that she had driven past a student who was walking home from school without wearing her school hat.
I was not really sure what she expected me to do, but I thanked her for dobbing in the student and that I would take no prisoners at the next school assembly.
This descent into triviality and administrivia was even more marked when I attended my first PFA meeting. Heated discussions surrounded how many and what stalls should be included at the annual school fair.
Like many of our students I would sit there and yearn for the overblown agenda to finish. All the time I had to feign interest and with the greatest tact explain how the school could not be closed for the week before the fair allowing for the erection of multiple circus tents, a helicopter landing strip and a suitable enclosure for the elephant rides.
Exaggeration aside, I did appreciate their commitment to raising funds for the school. What I did not know was how many night meetings a principal had to attend and how few I actually looked forward to.
Most Council members had no qualifications in education apart from being experts, insofar as they had been to school themselves.
Most had a direct connection with the school as fee paying parents, and during supper breaks I was invariably button-holed, assailed and lobbied on behalf of their child.
I reflected on why anyone would want to assume the responsibility of serving on a School Board other than to push their own agenda and the interest of their own children. The fact that most resigned after their child graduated supports this supposition.
Others seemed to relish the title and the prestige the position had in the school community. This was especially the case when they needed to appoint a new principal.
Having been shortlisted for a number of principal positions, I was often gobsmacked by how inept some Boards were in the whole selection process. School Councils will often not include folk who are best suited to grapple with big ideas, long-term planning and educational philosophy.
In this case the local physiotherapist, real estate agent and retired solicitor might not be expected to understand the intricacies of running a school and the role of principal.
In my experience this favours smooth-talking candidates who can charm and are over-endowed with style rather than substance.
The phone rang and a student’s father had died. I drove to the nearby farm and found a distraught, inconsolable wife and mother. She had sent all four of her children to our school and was well known and loved in our community.
In my life I had had little experience with death and felt completely inadequate as I sat at her kitchen table struggling to find the right, words, if any such words existed.
A teacher unloaded the pain and anger of a broken marriage and a bitter divorce proceeding. How does one console an associate who no longer has access to his children and who is sleeping on a friend’s couch? How is the hell he is enduring impacting on his teaching and can and should we pay him during his much-needed extended leave?
Fortunately, my legal background prepared me for instances where knowledge of legal issues such as duty of care, mandatory reporting and defamation arose. I wondered how many principals had the same legal literacy!
However, I had no experience completing endless government surveys and forms, applying for grants, reviewing plans for new classrooms, balancing budgets and marketing. I had to rely heavily on the business manager and hope he was competent and sharp.
When a senior teacher resigned on the spot I discovered how little I knew about Industrial Relations, Awards and dealing with Teacher Unions.
I had to attend the monthly local Rotary Club meetings as well as engage in any other opportunities to ‘sell’ the school. To that end I wrote a weekly article in the local newspaper and honed a spiel to reel in prospective parents.
Fortunately, I enjoyed public speaking but grew weary of feeding the chooks with cliches the audience would swallow.
“Yes, every child is special at Arcadia College and we are committed to life-long learning!”
I longed for meaningful debate about pedagogy and innovative curriculum. I appreciated the need to be a used car salesman, but I just wasn’t prepared for how far a principal had to stray from the classroom coalface.
I was an advanced skilled teacher working in a profession I loved and had always aspired to. This seemed to have little to do with the role of a principal. I missed the classroom and the interaction with students. I was now dealing mostly with adults, largely with parents and teachers, a totally different ball game.
My eyes were opened to the reality that 10 per cent of the staff were outstanding practitioners, 10 per cent dead, burnt-out wood and most were just ordinary unexceptional folk, coping daily with the ever-increasing demands and challenges of teaching.
I fielded frequent parent complaints about the staff, some were justified but most reflected the misconception that teachers were somehow perfect human beings and that the slightest peccadillo should be treated as shocking and reprehensible.
Most complaints were duly and tactfully acknowledged and consigned to the wastepaper basket. Why ruin a teacher’s day recounting a vexatious and unreasonable complaint?
I was certainly not prepared for angry, irrational and abusive parents and wished I had some previous experience in mediation and other people’s anger management!
What I found most disappointing was the lack of enthusiasm by the staff for change. The only time I saw much interest and involvement was when the issue of pay and conditions were on the agenda. Otherwise, most staff are struggling to cope with the day-to-day challenges of teaching to have the time and energy to discuss the big picture and curriculum innovation.
Change inevitably means more work and too often change in schools is counter-productive and ill thought out. Staff are understandably reluctant to waste time on a possibly harebrained innovation which will be replaced down the track with an even more ill-conceived project.
Meanwhile, much time and commitment has been expended and teachers become more gun-shy of any future innovation.
This means that schools tend to be very conservative institutions, prone to clinging to processes and programs that are inefficient and stale.
“We have always done it like this!"
Currently the only promotion pathway for teachers is to be part of the Executive and become senior managers. Although the taxman will prey on their increased salaries, ambitious teachers will still aspire to be a principal.
But be warned that being a principal has little to do with education. I was advised that the reason I just missed on a principal position was that these days they prefer MBA graduates with business acumen and marketing gurus.
Men and women in suits who will be CEOs of multi-million dollar enterprises who can talk and walk business and who will spend significant time away from school at high powered meetings.
After completing their university degrees lawyers must still complete a Practical Training course or Articles before they can practice.
Experienced lawyers must complete an accredited course before they can be a Magistrate.
Yet in our education system there are no mandated prerequisite courses for school principals. The myth still persists that there is a seamless transition from the classroom to the Head Office. That the unique skills required by a principal are somehow acquired by some magical osmosis.
Like many university courses including initial teacher training, postgraduate degrees in educational administration tend to be heavily theoretical.
What I am proposing is the opportunity for aspiring principals to complete a custom designed School Leadership Certificate. It would be largely practical and prepare participants to face the myriad day-to-day demands they are likely to face.
Units would be delivered online, at weekend seminars and week-long programs during school holidays. Course presenters would include academics but as often as possible former and current principals.
Unless mandated by legislation, School Boards would begin to expect applicants to have successfully completed this Certificate. If a candidate was appointed without the qualification their condition of employment might be that they must complete the Certificate before they start or in their first year in the role.
Aspiring principals who undertake the course may discover that their preconceptions about the role of principal are ill-founded and that the life of a principal is not for them.
I have encountered too many principals whose contracts have not been renewed and who are bitter, disgruntled and incensed that their often 110% commitment has not been recognized or rewarded.
Not only must a successful principal have certain unique qualities, they must also have the requisite skills and background knowledge which cannot be assumed just because they have been a successful educator or DP.
A telling exercise is to compare photographs of newly appointed principals to those taken when they retire or are moved on. The role is stressful, family unfriendly, conflict-ridden and all consuming.
The least we can do is to devise ways to better prepare and support principals rather than chew them up and spit them out as is often the case.
