Why on Earth Would I Want To Be a Principal?
Mark McKelson - Leadership Consultant
There is too much negativity about our work, something needs to change. Yes, there is stress! Yes, there is pressure! Yes, parents can be unreasonable! But at the end of the day, whether we are principal, teacher or an integration aide, aren’t these the things we deal with every day?
Media coverage is also negative. What we don’t read about in the newspaper is the principal who turned the school budget around; the principal that got funding for the child with disability; the principal who improved their schools reading results; the principal who stands at the front gate every day; the principal who is changing their community and the principal who makes a difference every day. I’ll admit it, I love being a principal, leading the community, managing the budget, solving complex problems and supporting those who need our help the most.
It seems we are getting less people applying for principal jobs, which is a concern. I’m interested in being part of the solution. It would be easy for us to say it’s up to the Department to fix the problem but I agree with John’s comments in the last newsletter: It starts with us. We must take responsibility now for developing the new generation of leaders. We must be part of the solution!
It’s easy to say why it is currently a very difficult time to be a principal, but we need to flip the thinking, put our green hats on and look at why now is the best time to be a principal. Some schools are very challenged financially, however, there has never been a time when education is funded as well as it is now. There is better principal preparation through BASTOW, we have more support from the DET than we ever have from our SEILS, KESO’s, LOOKOUT centres and our fantastic legal branch. When you compare to five years ago when we would ring Emergency Management and they wouldn’t give advice, times have certainly changed and for the better. Maybe it’s me but I’ve always been the one to ask too many questions. We need to encourage the next generation to be the same, don’t try and do it yourself, be open and ask away.
Whether you are acting in your first principal role or you have been doing it for 20 years you need to put the work in now. If we sit back and let our assistant principals think they can do their role for 10 years then fall into your job because no one else wants it or worse still they don’t want to do it, you are not doing your job properly. We have to be thinking in the promotion space, we can’t be hanging onto good people because they make our lives easier, we need to train, guide and support them and help them believe they have the capacity to do the role. If your AP is sitting around thinking I can do this forever you need to change your approach, get the people in there who are going to change our profession.
I challenge you all to make the time to talk more about the great days and your positive experiences. We have them every week, but we are damn good at whinging about the things that go wrong. We will always need principals and we need them to be fighting over the position not falling into it. It’s a great job and we need to spread that message.
