I have got to be the luckiest guy in the world. I know that
other people have jobs similar to mine, getting to serve students as a
superintendent of schools. One of the great things about having a 260-day
contract is that you get vacation days anytime you want throughout the school
year.
I was on the flight home from Mexico, where I spent five
days with my wife and another school administrator and his wife who we travel
with, when these thoughts crossed my mind. It was a glorious time. We went zip lining,
whale watching, on a glass-bottomed boat and enjoyed the entertainment at the
resort. All of our food was included in the price of the stay, which for me was
a real plus!
As I returned home to school the next morning, my mind kept
going back to the resort and how they treated everyone. All the workers, from
the front desk people, to the waiters and waitresses, to the activity people,
just everyone, were the nicest people to deal with. I thought about the
leadership this resort utilizes and how we could translate that into schools.
I am convinced that education is a service industry. Schools
provide a service of educating our young people. While I have never bought into
the idea that the students are our customers, as some people have, I do believe
that we, as educators, perform a service to the greater community, state and
nation.
I would like our staff to treat the students as if they are
vacationers at a resort, with a smile, with a dogged determination to make the
student’s stay as enjoyable as it can be, while still getting the information
into their heads. I learned a lot from our stay at this resort, whether it was
a brush up on my Spanish or how to zip line, and it will stay with me for a long
time, We need to present the materials to the kids so that it stays with them
for along time – longer than just until the test is over. That might mean changing
some of our teaching strategies and habits.
Education is a tricky business and in some remote
situations, it seems like some teachers are the ones at the resort and the
expectation is that the kids serve them. While I hope that isn’t the case in
Pleasantville, I need to make sure that doesn’t happen. The leadership secrets
of the resort need to take hold here. We serve the public and it is our job to
serve the students by making it the best situation they can possibly have. We
owe it to the students, their parents and the public in general. Adios mi
amigos!
