The Changing of the Guard Part II

After two years at the junior high school, I was transferred to the high school where I got to know several excellent educators. Sam made an immediate impression on me. A tall, stocky man with a completely hairless dome and a strongly Italian accent, he was an imposing presence in the classroom. He had no discipline problems at all. He had an undeserved reputation as a man to be feared. Sam always wore has class ring, which had a giant red stone. Early in his career he would use corporal punishment and once slapped a student. Unfortunately he caught the student with his ring a cut his cheek. That was the last time he touched a student.


When I knew him, he was mellow and laid back. As an experienced teacher, he had developed more relaxed and refined discipline methods. The students enjoyed his classes and I enjoyed his company. I valued his advice and improved as a teacher because of it. Sam retired many years ago and recently passed away. He had a long, successful teaching career and enjoyed over twenty years in retirement.

George was a fellow science teacher. He taught the chemistry classes and could teach physics if needed. He set high standards and expected the students to attain those standards. George’s curriculum was demanding and prepared students for college courses in the sciences. At the same time he was able to tailor chemistry classes for students who were more oriented for trade schools rather than for a four year college. George had a long, successful teaching career but developed cancer and died before he was able to retire.

I also knew a couple of teachers who at first made very strong, positive impressions on me. Ray was an excellent math teacher with very high standards and an excellent ambassador for the teaching profession. He was an excellent negotiator for teaching contracts with a focus on what was good for the students as well as the teachers. Unfortunately, he moved into administration and became the antithesis of everything he stood for earlier in his career. Eventually he became the superintendent of the school district and when he died, few people remembered anything about his years in the classroom.

Bruce was my department head and I learned more from him about organizing and preparing a good science lesson in my first year with the district than I had learned in four years of college. He had made a reputation by consistently advising state and national science fair winners. He taught the advanced chemistry and physics classes and brought many national science grants to the school district. His goals were set much higher than the classroom and as he moved into district position, the science grants dried up and budgetary cutbacks became commonplace. By the time he worked his way into the position of Superintendent of Schools, his classroom career was pretty much forgotten and a teacher antagonistic school board made the position so difficult that he had little positive impact on the educational system.

Ray and Bruce helped me develop improved classroom techniques. They also showed me how detrimental weak leadership is to the educational process.

My high school principal, Curt, was my immediate “boss” for 18 years. He was a well respected sports official until his legs gave out. We often noticed that his office door was closed after he officiated a state championship match. The rumor was that he was “napping”. I don’t know if that was true or not, but I do know what was true. Curt would defend his teachers against any questionable criticism. He would also defend teachers against complaints about decisions being made that affected students in an adverse way. Then, if the teacher’s action was not a good one, he would quietly point that out to the teacher after the parent had left. The smart teacher would then correct the problem.

Curt required weekly lesson plans so he was always aware of what was happening in the classrooms. I used to wonder if he read them and would sometimes turn in plans that were short and cryptic. I remember the week I turned in these plans: Monday-Mars, Tuesday-Venus, Wednesday-Jupiter, Thursday-Saturn, Friday-asteroids. That is when I discovered that Curt did read the plans. I spent ten minutes with him. The next day I had acceptable plans turned in and he paid special attention to me for a few weeks after that.

Curt showed many of the characteristics of an excellent high school principal. He defended teachers when they were unjustly accused by anybody- parent or board member. He supported their decisions and actions as long as they followed established policies. He would quietly discipline teachers who needed it and was always up front with any teacher in all of his actions. He always acted for in the best interests of everyone concerned. He was as fair with the students as he was with his teachers. He interacted with the students in a friendly manner and new many of them by name.

Curt was satisfied being a high school principal and served for many years until retiring and eventually moving to Florida.

When we moved to the west coast and I eventually returned to teaching, I worked under two other principals who played important roles in the development of my teaching career. John was a guidance counselor who worked his way up to being a middle school principal. His interaction with students was a very important aspect of his position. Students felt at ease with him, even when being disciplined.

John had some health problems from his time in Vietnam and found decision making to be very difficult. He was in a difficult position working in a school where teachers wanted to do things their own way and were often less than cooperative. Many of the attitudes were surprising to me and a number of them appeared to have their own agendas ranked ahead of what was best for the students. For example, most were against grouping by ability because it was easier to control a class that had very bright students scattered among students who could care less about school. They didn’t seem to mind that the bright students were held back from achieving their full potential and the slow students were unable to handle the level of work being taught (a middle ground approach). John hit a wall more than once. When he did make a decision I didn’t agree with, his door was always open and I could go in and tell him what I thought. He never held anything I said against me. That was one of several things I respected him for.

When John was encouraged to leave, I had to take part in a juvenile, distasteful proceeding. The district held a special retreat for all of the staff in the building to cleanse themselves of John’s tenure. It was felt that everyone harbored bad feelings that prevented them from moving forward under new leadership. That somehow everyone must have been psychologically injured. I wanted to vomit when I heard this plan but I was contractually obligated to take part. Here were professional people who were preparing young people to be successful and they had all of these hang-ups over a principal most of them never really supported. When everyone had to write down any bad feelings they had for John and then discard them into a trash container as they filed by, I knew then I wanted to find a high school situation. John is happy today. He is retired and working as a substitute teacher. I run into him once in a while and we swap some stories.

I spent a few more years here working under an excellent principal who had come out of retirement to be John’s vice principal. Tom had taken an early retirement from teaching to take care of his son. His son had a number of personal problems and John gave up his career to care for him and renew their father-son relationship. I respected him for that and stayed on to work with him.

Tom was in a difficult position as he had to work with a difficult staff. Many of the teachers were dedicated, but many others were self focused. One science teacher had spent most of his career telling science fiction stories instead of teaching science. His students were a disaster when they hit high school. When he retired, his replacement was a know-it-all fresh out of college who caused me all sorts of grief. A female teacher was especially vindictive and made me the focus of her attacks. Knowing I didn’t need to put up with the downslide of teaching expertise surrounding me, I became very active looking for another position. The year Tom retired, following a three year “healing program”, I also moved on to my present position.

Tom was very humanistic in his approach. He weighed all of decisions carefully before making them. He interacted with the students and always had their best interests as the basis for each and every decision. I was pleased to have worked with him for the years that I did. After he retired, he was constantly approached by other districts who wanted him to run one of their buildings to correct some problems that had become apparent.

These two blogs have been about people who have been part of my professional life and helped me become the teacher I am today. I hope that as you have read them, that you have thought about a teacher or principal who had a positive affect on your own life.