Why I became a principal-- Students First

People ask me this question from time to time. As an educator I believe that thinking about the why is important.  Thinking about the why keeps you grounded to your true self and motivations.  So here is why I became a principal.

I began my professional career in the athletic world as a athletic trainer.  During the early years as a athletic trainer I worked with athletes in NCAA Div 1, minor league baseball, hockey, and arena football.  I traveled all across America with the various sports teams and athletes.  After a few years of this life I decided to work at the high school level as an athletic trainer.  This move was the start of something big... I just didn't know it yet.

For seven years I worked to develop an athletic training program that made my mentor proud and served the athletes of A&M Consolidated High School well.  Everyday was a new day with new challenges both in the classroom and in the competition areas but after a while I began to feel a calling to work with students in a different capacity.  I felt a need to help students that did not have the support that many students that competed in athletics experienced.

Growing up in a single parent household situation, bouncing between my mother and my father over the years, I could relate to students in a way other educators could not. I always had a roof over my head, clothes on my back, and food in my stomach but I knew the hurt and instability that came with being raised in a broken home.  My mother was poor, just a kid herself when she became a mother and my father had his struggles with substance abuse in his early years.  Both of my parents had multiple marriages and divorces during my childhood.

I knew that I could take my life experiences and help students that struggle in life because of similar situations. Becoming a principal put me into a position in life to make a difference for many students.

Since becoming a principal I have experienced many ups and downs in working with students.  Not all  students end up in my office because they come from a difficult home situation, but sadly the vast majority have a background similar to mine.  I would like to say that I am able to make the connections and relationships with the students on the first go around but if you work in schools you know that it is not that easy.  Many of them have trust issues because the adults in their lives have violated that trust.  These issues spill over into the schoolhouse.

Being a principal allows me to continue to work with these students.  Some of them come around and some of them choose to continue down their current path.  I know that I can reach them but it takes time, patience, trust, and more patience.  How can I continue to help students that do not want to help themselves you ask?  I see myself in many of my students...I just give them what I needed at their age: accountability, trust, respect, expectations.

Why are you in education?  It is worth thinking about from time to time, I promise.