The Costs of Umbrellas and Funnels

Part of my work outside of my role as the principal of Greene Central involves providing professional development and courses for new and aspiring administrators. I also do some policy and advocacy work around the role of school administrators. These roles usually mean that I have to explain what modern principals do each day, week, month, and school year. The job has changed a lot since I started it and today, we find ourselves in the middle on mandates from the district, the state or the federal government and the students, teachers and community that we lead. So when a new need or policy arises, we find ourselves having to make a decision on how to go about it. Usually that decision requires that we be an umbrella or a funnel. 

As an umbrella, I try to shelter those below me from as much as I can. Having an umbrella in a storm doesn't guarantee that you stay dry, but it does a great deal to protect you from being soaked. As a metaphor, it means that while teachers and students might get some exposure, generally I try to cover them myself by taking on the bulk of the implementation of that new thing. Conversely, by choosing to be a funnel, I have to pass things along to teachers and students to do and I direct that as much as possible as it moves through me. Parent contact for absences, tardies and smaller classroom behaviors are a good example of this. I help direct policies that ask teachers to do the first interventions because there are more teachers than there are counselors and administrators to take this on daily. 

There are costs to umbrellas and funnels. As a teacher, it's probably easier for you to see the cost of a funnel. It comes as an ask of your time at the expense of something else you would have been doing. It's "another thing" to think about and adds something to your plate. It doesn't always feel fair, even if you understand it's purpose. The same is true for umbrellas. When I decide to shelter teachers or students, it means that it is another thing that I take on and there's almost certainly an opportunity cost. It could mean that I'm less visible, have less time to be in classrooms, or direct less resources to something that had previously done just fine. 

For either choice, there is a cost. But here's the thing; we know it's going to rain. New things will come and will ask for our time and attention. New problems will arise. So when that rain falls, we can have an umbrella or a funnel waiting, or we can all just get soaked in the storm and no one wants that. So maybe we need to do a better job of talking about what we do with and for one another. Just understanding and appreciating the burdens that we carry can give us tons of perspective. Becasue while the costs of umbrella and funnels can sometimes feel quite high, the costs of finding shelter in a storm are always priceless.