“Rocks in the pocket” eventually cause most school administrators to leave their current position, wrote Jerry Patterson in The Anguish of Leadership (2000). Rocks are negative baggage. They are the unfavorable stories attached to a person’s reputation by those who are dissatisfied with the direction of leadership or did not get their way on an issue. They are the residue of scorn accrued by leaders who make leadership decisions that cause some to smile and others to frown. The weight of rocks, like the chains forged in life by Marley in Dickens’ Christmas Carol, eventually cause career mortality, because their accumulated weight drowns their owner in the political waters of public education.
It is impossible to be an active school leader and not pick up some rocks along the way. The simplest of decisions, such as keeping children indoors for recess on a rainy day, will cause someone to say “it was not raining that hard, “they could have gone outside” and that someone deposits a pebble in the principal’s pocket. On the other hand, sending all children out in a rainstorm would cause many people to drop a lot of pebbles in the principal’s pocket with the aggregated weight of a hefty rock.
Some pebbles and rocks are avoidable and may even be returned to sender if a principal follows two rules of the leadership road: execute the policy and do what is right for children.
“Here, fill this pocket with rocks,” is what a principal says when he tries to make children or parents or community members happy by “customizing” school rules or school board policy. Softening the consequences prescribed by policy may be a principal’s initial thought when looking into the sad face of a child alleged with a school rule infraction. “Do something to appease this sad child,” a principal’s inner voice says. Bending the rule “just a bit” may seem okay when confronted with a very supportive parent who understands the rules, but ekes out an “is that really necessary in this case.” “Just a bit” is the length or rope that that winds up being a noose. Letting something slide is the same as standing watch on quick sand; there are no secrets in schools and very quickly others expect the “bent rule” or the “let it go this time” to be the new status quo on school policies and rules. Within a few years, a principal’s pockets are so heavy with rocks that this principal begins to avoid making decisions, especially critical decisions. “How can I be blamed, if I don’t make the decision?” Decision avoidance doesn’t bring rocks; it brings boulders.
The easiest way to remain a “pebbles only” school leader is to be clear about your duty. You are hired to maintain an orderly and positive learning and teaching environment by doing the work assigned by your employer, the School Board. Number one on the job description for most principals is “administer Board policies and school rules” or a variation of that mandate.
Executing policy is not an act of compliance that is blind to the moment or the people involved. Being an educator first, a principal has perfect teachable moments to explain the rationale for a rule or the background to a policy. When a school board reviews and revises policy frequently in order to craft appropriate organizational and behavioral guidelines, policies have a context that should be explained and can be taught. As an enforcer of policy, a principal by design is a player in the writing of policy as well as a reviewer and reviser of policy. There should be very few school policies of which a principal can say “I was unaware of…” or “… am unfamiliar with this rule.” An active principal reads and studies and understands school policies and rules and purposefully talks with district leadership and the school board when policies and rules seem out of date or ineffective in guiding student, parent and community decisions. Policies and rules are living statements in a school and a principal is responsible for the quality of their life.
To enforce a rule is to provide clarity between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. It is personally impersonal work. The resulting clarity of what the school expects and accepts can create a very positive and productive margin within which children and adults can use policy and rules for their individual and group success. At the same time, the margin allows these same school people to be creative in “pushing the envelope” of policies or rules to open new possibilities and opportunities. Principals who understand policies and rules and can help students and adults to explore new areas of behavior and school culture without falling into conflict with the school’s need for orderliness. Enforcing rules can be very liberating when a leader understands their intentions and goals. A leader who does this begins to unload rocks from his pockets, because he engenders respect as a leader rather than a “by the rules man.” School principalship, however, begins and ends with administering policy with integrity.
The second rule of the road is to always find the high ground of “doing what is right” for children. Sounds easy and sounds right, eh! But, what do you do when “what is right” for children is not shared by teachers and staff, or community adults, or parents? Seems odd that this contradiction might exist, but it rises all the time. The special interests of specific groups of people often are in conflict and the core of each conflict is control. Whose opinion will control the behavior of others? What students wear, how they behave in school, what they can say and do, how they use their time, what they eat and where they eat it, when they go to the bathroom – the list is endless – all are control issues. Some may say that decisions on these issues have safety and organizational implications or are based on “common sense.” Whose common sense will control the issue?
In almost all of these issues, the principal must be the spokesperson for children. Because children are not formally at the table for a discussion and decision of the issues that involve them, their opinions are given short shrift. Enter the principal! The principal’s high ground position must be “I will speak for what is right for the children in my school.” This white knight role does not mean the principal should uphold nonsensical child-based positions. Some things children want to wear, do, say and have in their school will go beyond every adult’s common sense. Nonsensical as they often be, children still need to be represented at the adult’s table and that representative person must be the principal. There is a sincere sense of pride and purpose when a principal self-acknowledges that “this decision is right for children” and that is what really matters.
A principal who conscientiously administers Board policies and school rules and takes the high ground of doing what is right for children is a school leader who will not be drowned by the weight of rocks in the pockets.