Principal Styles I Have Known

Over the past 29 years I have worked under 7 principals in Florida. It is interesting to study their relative styles. If you are a principal or aspire to be a principal look over these folks and see if you recognize yourself. Here they are, in random order:

1) A bully who enjoyed verbally tormenting teachers. This principal would leave nasty notes in mailboxes and call in teachers to harass them every time an important parent would complain. It didn't matter what the student was doing. The teacher was always at fault and would be punished by giving them the worst jobs the following year. My favorite saying of this principal was "When the student fails, the teacher fails." This means that students have no responsibility for their own actions or learning.

2) A wonderful principal whose door was always open to teachers. This principal would seek out teachers and actually listen to their opinions. It wasn't just a case of them going through the motions to make it look like they cared. They would set school policy after teacher input and valued our ideas.

3) A person who felt overwhelmed by the job. They spent most of their time hiding. I didn't see much of them and when I did it was not a pleasant experience.

4) A very competent and warm person who ran a good school. This principal was fair and dealt with problems by listening to all sides and usually making a rational decision based upon the facts. The students, teachers, and parents all respected this person as being a caring and intelligent individual.

5) A good principal who sat down with individual teachers and acted upon their input. This principal did make some mistakes but overall was well thought of by teachers and students.

6) A principal who cared more about image than anything else. They were great at P.R. but not very good at valuing teacher input. Teachers were pawns to be controlled. Those who made the principal look good were praised.

7) A principal who was jaded from years on the job. They probably should have retired years before but stayed around to the irritation of both teachers and parents. Another image monger who thought that students would learn by themselves and that the main purpose of teachers was to project the image that the school was great.

As you can see, I have witnessed a wide variety of styles from principals over the years. I have been fortunate to have worked under several who were special people. I wish that education had more people like them. I have also worked under principals I did not think were assets to education. We need more of those wonderful principals who think of teachers as peers and who value their judgment and expertise. I wish that leadership courses for principals would place more emphasis upon training them how to work properly with teachers. The good ones seem to have a natural knack for this. There should be a method for bringing this trait out in most future principals. I believe that some education leadership courses are teaching that instructors need to be controlled and dominated rather than to be worked with in a spirit of cooperation. This is doing a disservice to education and the students we serve.