Why a principal should strive to positively affect the teacher's day

Why a principal should strive to positively affect the teacher’s day

Positively affecting the teacher’s day must be among the highest order of things a principal thinks about on the drive to school in the morning, or when walking the halls once arriving. Teachers do the critical work of guiding the human development of our children. Teachers have one of the most difficult job that exists. When I say this, I mean “when the teaching is done right; when all kids are moving ahead and experiencing success.” There is little understanding for what teachers face day in and day out.  How many times have I heard of cases where parents have discouraged their children from becoming a teacher.  We certainly don’t offer them many perks, and the pay, while it can help one to earn a living, is going to almost necessitate some careful economic planning for their household. Consider this:

 “[By] design and by default, this society has chosen to promote pathology-based medicine, to encourage litigious forms of conflict resolution, and to engineer technologies for an ever increasing military capability. The relatively lucrative, upward-bound professional careers in medicine, law, and engineering clearly reflect these values.  That is, by design and by default this country has chosen to turn disease, disputes, and war into profitable career fields.  At the same time, it has made most unattractive the activity of educating our young.  The question is not whether resources should be dedicated to the maintenance of health, domestic tranquillity, and international peace.  Rather, the question is whether any society can afford to make their opposites profitable and to do so at the expense of education…. Health and tranquillity depend at least as much upon education of the general populace as upon expertise in medicine, law, and engineering.  The task is to attract a reasonable portion of our brightest, most capable young people into teaching careers.”

 - Kerr, Donna H. (1983). “Teaching competence and teacher education in the United States.”  In Lee S. Shulman & Gary Sykes (Eds.), Handbook of Teaching and Policy (pp. 126-149).  New York: Longman