It's Not Political

One of the job hazards of being a principal is that people often recognize you in public and want to ask you questions. At a register this week, the person taking my money gave me that look and asked, "Where do I know you from?" Politely, I responded, "I'm the principal at Greene Central." "I thought so," he responded. That led to a full-blown conversation about "schools today." I chose to engage in the conversation because I've always thought that if you're not promoting the truth about your school, you're letting others promote the version that they believe and this was the perfect case. The clerk at the register had not set foot in our school (or any other) in a long time. Like many people, their understanding of schools today is based on what they hear. The store clerk told me that he was worried about what kids were learning in schools and if they were being "indoctrinated." 

I know that the media, politicians, and Facebook posts love to pick schools apart right now for the same things that the store clerk was worried about. But for those of us that work in a school every day, it's a little hard to figure out what they are even talking about. While we do teach the curriculums that our courses require, the real progress that I see every day involves teaching students how to be better people and how to figure out what they want to do when they leave us. There's no room for indoctrination in college prep, career development, or motivation against apathy and those things are what is really being pushed in schools today. And while it's hard sometimes to see your progress, just think back to the first month of school and compare it to now. It is working and politics or political ideology had nothing to do with any of it. Being an educator rises above those things if you're one that truly cares about kids and their development and success beyond your classroom. 

By the end of the conversation with the store clerk, he told me that I had restored his faith in the local education system. Maybe that's one win. Maybe we can think of it as growth for the public. Because at the end of the day, it's not political to grow a teenager into a productive young adult. It's just education.