Overview:
Today’s schools desperately need selfless, decisive administrators like Cincinnatus who lead with integrity and accountability rather than ego
I have been engrossed in Ancient Roman history – not just the early Caesars with Tacitus, but with the Early Republic. And in reading, you can see the parallels between those leaders and administrators.
Probably one of the best leaders – I should clarify, selfless leaders were Cincinnatus, the Roman Dictator (which should be noted that is not a dictator in the modern sense). During a time of crisis, the Roman Senate, visited Cincinnatus on his farm – literally found muddy and dirty plowing his own field. When they offered him the dictatorship, Cincinnatus agreed, brushed himself off, defeated the enemy armies of Rome, and then after fifteen days resigned from his dictatorship to go back to his field. Like George Washington, Cincinnatus had the chance to remain in power, and gave that power up. He was able to submit himself to a lower state, after having ultimate authority.
What a lesson for political leaders!
And what a lesson for school administrators – and when we as teachers are in such desperate need for this type of leader, they are not present.
What many are left with are the emperors – men ruled by vanity, ego, and delegating responsibilities while they reside in their palace in Capri, or locked up in their palace in Rome.
Our Caesar Augustus, let’s call him Mr. Doolittle, walks the hall, shouts at the top of his lungs, picks and chooses whether the ten-day suspension goes to the student who he doesn’t like, or whether the student is a “poor, unfortunate soul” and gets to continue roaming the halls for the remainder of the day. While our bleeding hearts may think that this is restorative, the result is that student hallway walking only increases, and respect towards Mr. Doolittle plummets. (I’ll add as well, that having come from the stock of teachers to the administrative position should make him more considerate to teacher plight, but alas, that is not the case; choosing to ignore his team seeing them die on the field, so long as his glory is intact. Sic transit gloria mund.
And then we have our Tiberius, we’ll call him Mr. Trebuchet, whose authority is whether or not “you are a friend of Caesar” and only “as long as compliance is solid.” Yet, you could work with someone that operates on that binary mode of thinking. I can – and have – slaved to make sure that I was in good standing; yet, there’s always an exception. If you kiss Trebuchet’s butt, or you stroke his ego, then you’re fifty-percent “out of compliance” is ignored, and you’re spared the Spanish Inquisition at the weekly Monday morning meeting.
So, when Trebuchet opens with: “Johnny is failing in his push-in class!” he opens with the opening shot.
And you want to respond: “Johnny is asleep in class because is brain is foggy and hazy…Oh…that Grand-daddy Purp…how Johnny missed him!”
But the expected answer is: “According to the Individualized Student Checklist Johnny was checked out for thirty minutes of the eight-minute instructional period, and an attempt to call home was thwarted with a disconnected number, and an email to bigdaddybooty1985@yahoo.com.” (You know that Bubba Shoescott or Bubbalina Shoescott smiles condescendingly planning their additional week off after the break).
Trebuchet’s recent crime, was accusing a teacher of inciting an incident with a student. Interesting, because only a day before, and a week before that Trebuchet praised this teacher and sought her assistance. But now, the phrase “petty” is inciting – as in “if you want me to be ‘petty’ I can call home for shouting in class.” Now, the student is able to say “I want to fight you on-site, Miss” Dresden, the student, is simply misunderstood; “fight” is existential fight – “metaphoric, really…”
“But ‘petty’ can’t be metaphoric?” Ms. Fieldes asked.
“No…when you tell a kid he’s ‘petty’ you’re invading their personal space, and…” the bureaucratic jargon follows.
But the district is not all negative..
Probably the best administrator I had, and closest to Cincinnatus, was my first principal. You can liken him to Scipio Africanus – a self-starter, organizer, and great personality. Sure, he was, like myself, did not “play nice in the sandbox,” (some may have called him an “asshole” – but he’s my kind of asshole ala Die Hard II). And unlike the administrators above that get little to no respect, this one did (and is serving currently in a much higher position). The girl eating her fourth French Toast, in her haze – kicked out. The kid who pulled a gun on another kid after school hours – out. His tough-as-nails-tell-it-to-you-straight attitude showed me, and awakened my latent ADHD diagnosis, and he was spot on. Sure, he took advancement and is in district office, but it’s deserved – blood and sweat.
Others we have to show six weeks of data as to why the student who can’t be trusted with sharps – who has forced as to remove even the staplers in the room – cannot be moved to a behavior program.
I can’t stand administrators who have no grit in their nails, no stakes in the game, but then like to criticize and give people a hard time.
Give me Cincinnatus!
Give me Scipio Africanus!
But for now, Goodnight, Cincinnatus; wherever you are!
