tional days due to emergencies and meetings, principals need another way
to meet with students. One middle school principal made it a practice to
visit every student in a classroom setting. In September, she visited the
English classes of all her new sixth-grade students, teaching a lesson on
their new school: its procedures, practices, rules, support staff.
In November, the principal visited all seventh-grade math classes to teach
these students a lesson on what they had to do to graduate with their class
the next year. Finally, in March, she visited the social studies classes of all
her eighth graders to encourage them to keep working until the end of the
school year, go over the high school application process, and explain how
their three years at this school had prepared them for this next level.
Other principals of elementary and high schools do something similar,
making their lessons appropriate to the age and class of the students. The
topics discussed are secondary to the principal’s visibility and accessi-
bility during these visits. Principals who initiate such a practice in their
schools find it becomes a yearly ritual that students look forward to.
The larger your school, the sooner you as principal will have to deal with
the tragedy of a student’s death. An urban middle school principal had a
child die during his first year as principal. The child had been at a neigh-
borhood movie theater when a fight broke out. He was not involved and
was the victim of a stray bullet. The last part of this chapter deals with
the saddest rite of passage a school leader deals with, saying goodbye to
those who die. This student’s death, during the winter holiday season, left
a permanent impression on this principal. Thereafter, on the last day of
school prior to the start of the winter recess, he did a dizzying spin around
the school for two or three periods, visiting every class in the school just
to stop in and tell students to have a joyful, restful, and safe holiday—and
to come back when the recess ended.
A more joyful ritual was begun by a high school principal. It was ac-
tually the idea of his union representative, who had transferred into the
school. At an informal meeting with the principal, he described a holiday
ritual in his previous school. As students arrived on the last day before
the recess, they were greeted by staff members singing holiday songs (all
secular, such as “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”).
The principal began this ritual in his school. The first year, there were
about ten teachers singing, to the consternation of the students entering
186 Chapter 14