Eastside High? Lean on Me? Morgan Freeman as Crazy Joe Clark? If you haven't seen it, you're not alone...most of the administrators in my district haven't either. The ones who have idolize the film and Joe Clark. In the movie, he's the old school principal who waved his bat and cleaned up his school in a convenient 2 hour time frame. It is the poster movie for how to turn around a school. So, when you Eastside a school, you just kick out the 25% of kids who do nothing, slap some paint on the walls, and chain all the doors to keep kids in and dope boys out. The state education boys will go to hell once your kids pass the basic skills test.
Administrators and staff members idolize Joe Clark as if his story were completely true. If the world were packaged like Lean on Me, every problem would be solved through swift ass kicking via a bullhorn and angry stares. Problem is, the world is not a Warner Bros. production. Issues need to be addressed with style, grace, and the occasional kick in the ass. When my principal first uttered the line They used to call me Crazy Joe, now they call me Batman!, I cringed. That just meant she wanted to run her school like Joe Clark, and not in the way she was trained and had the intellect for. A destructive leadership style just leads to destruction, pure and simple.
As an administrator, leadership cannot be a scorched earth policy. Just be up front and clear in what you want. It takes conversations where you say I want this environment to be supportive and where everyone can grow. I will do my damn nest to provide you with what you need. However, as the leader, here are my expectations, and they are damn high. I'm absolutely confident we will succeed and meet these expectations, because you are here and you have the skills to do great things. You talk to your people as if they have a clue on how to do their job. You trust their judgment and work hard to help them grow personally and professionally. You can't come in and proclaim yourself as the HNIC, and expect people to follow because you are the boss. Oh, and if you say that to a union rep, then you might not be the HNIC for long.
Now, if your school or program is in mass chaos (similar to Eastside), you pull everyone together and tell them directly if ya'll want to exist in chaos, that's on you. We can work together to change the situation, or let the situation change us. Leave the personal bullshit at the door and come real. Take 5 and make a decision, but we stand together or fall together. And, we got rent to pay, so it's probably in our best interest to stand together. I've done this several times, and when you're direct and prove that you can stay above the bullshit, people band together or decide the situation isn't for them.
When I talk to new teachers and administrators, I give two pieces of advice. First, you're not the savior, and you won't be able to save every student. Get over that really fast. Second, just be yourself. If you try to be someone you're not, then nobody will respect you. Most people don't believe me, and think this business is like it is in the movies. This job is more like Prezbo in Season 4 of The Wire. You think you're a savior, and you get kicked in the mouth really fast. You find out that you actually kinda suck at this teaching thing, and the job is not like in Dangerous Minds or Freedom Writers. You can quit and run away, or you plug at it and find out that you're pretty good when you focus on providing the best for your students. You learn how the school "jukes the stats", how to stay away from the school drama, and what the kids go through. Most importantly, you learn how to help kids navigate the treacherous situations in their lives.
I just wish more people idolized Prezbo the teacher...
