The Failure of Leadership

Schools are struggling these days, in large part because administrators either cannot or will not take the lead when it comes to student curriculum and discipline.

I remember one instance at a local high school, in which two students had begun lying about me to a probation officer assigned to the campus. Then following that, one of the students in the room then threatened to hit me. I set the second student away, only to receive a call five minutes later from the dean.

"The student says that you pushed him," the dean told me.

"That is not true," I answered. And that was the truth. Like that young man, the freshmen at that campus were a rambunctious sort, individuals who would act out whenever they wanted to. In many cases, I felt harassed and helpless, since so many of them would act up at once, and I could not necessarily send a horde of students out of the room.

That day, in the ceramics class that I was covering, I found myself dealing with two students, one of whom had insulted me brazenly, then the other who had threatened to hit me. It surprised and disturbed me at length that the administration at the campus did next to nothing when dealing with the students, but they had no problem questioning or challenging me at length.

After the first recess, the ceramics class did not meet for the middle period, so normally I would have been left with a conference period to do whatever I wanted to. Instead, I received a call from the secretary at the last minute, and she ordered me to cover a nearby class.

So, off I went to the English class for Ms. A. Her class was very neat and becoming, and unlike most teachers she had left lesson plans for me to work from. Unfortunately, this class did not have one substitute the whole day thus far, so I was rotating into a class that did not have a teacher ready to receive the students. Pandemonium was the result!

To make matters worse, though, Mr. M. the assistant principal showed up, and he stood near the door, just looking at me. At that point, it was "do or die" -- I could get all kinds of jittery, or I could forgo any upset in my life and just do the best that I could with the situation presented to me, feelings to be set aside and focus on the task at hand. Choosing the latter, and learning in afterthought that I have the authority to decide how I choose to feel and what I choose to think, I just walked calmly around the room, getting kids to scramble into place. Some of them were so used to walking into a classroom without a substitute doing anything more than just sitting at the desk and hoping that they would not destroy the place.

Thankfully,  I had lesson plans, so therefore they would have other plans besides acting up that day. The assistant principal stood near the door for about ten minutes, during which time I was quietly circulating the room, telling students to get their books, papers, and notes out. I also told students that they were going to be watching a movie about William Shakespeare.

Once again, the failure of leadership at this campus shined through. The assistant principal was just standing there, and the students were acting up the whole time. They did not really even notice the guy, and many of them were still not settling down as they were supposed to. It was crazy.

At the other high school in the area, where I used to cover classes more frequently, one of the assistant principals would just walk by a classroom, and students would sit down really fast, for fear of getting called on and bawled out. Mr. M. did not command that kind of gravitas, it seemed, and that's just too bad. What a sad commentary on many schools, where the school leadership go around on some campuses unrecognized, or unnoticed.

He seemed intent on giving me the evil eye, perhaps in part because of the what the two students from the previous class had said about me. Either way, I was getting more done with my presence than Mr. M. did.

All that time, I had been trying to get the TV and VCR started, but I was struggling just to find the right channel. Still, Mr. M. was standing there, looking at me, looking for a mistake or a false move from me. I chose to be calm, and the students started to calm down with me. This was a first for me -- I was cool, calm, and collected, and an administrator was staring me down. I guess that is the essence of leadership. Mr. M. was a calm character, too, but for some reason he did not engage the students in that class with the same calm.

At any rate, after about ten minutes of wrangling and busy-work to keep the students in line, Mr. M. agreed to find another TV set, which once he brought it to me worked instantly. Everything worked just fine!

Mr. M. left the class, just like that, giving me the "thumbs-up", yet when he left, some of the students complained that he had been standing there and had done nothing.

The rest of the period went very well, except for the last ten minutes of class.

One of the freshmen had insisted on putting out his new basketball shoes, $150 pair. An easy steal for anyone who was looking when he was not looking.

And that is precisely what happened: someone took his shoes and his backpack away.

I lost my patience at that point:

"If I do not see those shoes and his backpack back on his desk in the next four minutes, I will call two security officers, and the first person caught with those items -- I will press charges myself!

Immediately, two of the freshmen jumped out of their seats and pulled aside the curtain next to the far wall. Lo and behold, the shoes and the backpack. "Put them back on his desk, now!" I shouted. They moved fast and returned them, right where they belonged.

I had not made students snap-to like that in a long time. When I realized that I had refused to give in to my feelings, when I let go of any shake-ups and difficulties, I found that it was very easy to get done what needed to get done, and make the other students do what I needed them to do.

Still, sadly, the failure of leadership which that school was known for would catch up with me the next day, when I received a voice message at 6:00 am telling me that my assignment had been cancelled. I could not believe that they would just cut me loose like that, and they did not have the diligence or the courtesy to give me any warning!

I had had a successful day, notwithstanding, enough that another group of freshmen had entered the room briefly before lunch, asking me if I was going to be covering the next class. No such luck, since I would be returning to the ceramics class for the final period, simple as that.