(It’s my great pleasure to introduce you to Dr. Helen Porter, Principal of Oakland Middle School in Columbia, Missouri. I’ve known Dr. Porter for many years, and I can assure you the only thing larger than her brain-full-of-awesomeness is her heart. We’re lucky to have her here today doing what she does best: teaching and sharing. Dr. Porter, the floor is yours!)
I am a middle school principal in a high Super Sub Group (SSG) school (SSG = kids on free/reduced lunch, Latinos, African Americans, ELL and Special Education students). All teaching is tough, but teaching in a high SSG school is TOUGH tough. It takes a special kind of person. Teachers choose us, and we choose them. This is a vocation, not a job.
The crazy thing is that I have been at this school for 20 years. I did internship hours in college at this school. I student taught at this school. I was a teaching fellow at this school. I have taught Reading and Honors English at this school. I have been a university mentor, assistant principal, and principal…at this school. You get the picture. I have this school’s colors – orange and blue – running through my veins. So I am not in the ivory tower, perched above all my employees. I am right there with them because the majority of my career has been right there with them.
Actually typing “my employees” gives me the heebies. They are “our” employees.
My doctorate is in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. Not sure I can accurately analyze policy, but the big fancy diploma on my wall says I should be able to. What I do know is that my doctoral education was heavily influenced by a business model. By Collins and HBR; Frederick Winslow Taylor and Henry Mintzberg. The powers that be thought my education should be heavily influenced by themes like the power, political, and symbolic frames of organizational leadership.
But…
In our “business” there is a mission to serve all. We are not a business who can deny service to anyone. Homeless? We will teach you. Drug addicted parents, two points if they are also in jail? We will teach you. Not a proficient English speaker, reader or writer? We will teach you. You punched our AP in the face? We will teach you.
So it takes a special person – a special teacher – to deal with all of this. And this is why I tell our teachers I love them. And why they even say it back to me.
When I am sweeping the gym and they ask me why, I say “because I love you and I want you to be happy and if me sweeping the gym gives you two minutes to go potty then I want you to do that.” When I pull the trash out of the can after lunch because our custodian has a bad back, it is because I love her and want her to be happy, and also she is actually the most important person in our school, maybe tied for first place with our secretary.
The term for this is servant leadership, but I know you know that.
What can business learn from us in public education? Is it just childish of me to believe, that in this day and age we can we heal through this idea of servant leadership? Is it naïve of me to describe this wish when business’s purpose is to make money, first and foremost?
You tell me. Can this be a “thing” now in industry?
It seems we are asking each other for a chance to be start over, to be healed, to come together, to provide some common ground for one another. Can that start with the public school model? Or servant leadership model? Won’t that be what is best for our country, and could it also be a way to improve business and then the bottom line and then shares and stocks and money doodads? I know it is unrealistic for a CEO or CFO to say “I love you” to her subordinates. But what if she really does love them and acts accordingly so they know by what she does that she does love them?
I don’t know. You tell me.
(Helen, thank you so much for sharing your story filled with insights… and also for using the word “doodads.” I’m proud to call you my friend, and we’re blessed you’re an educator of teachers, children, and their parents. You can follow Dr. Porter on twitter at @PrincipalOMS. If you’re interested in sharing a 500-1000 word essay on leadership, communication, productivity, or any facet of our First Order of Business, please contact us!)