have a ritual celebrating our nation’s rich variety of cultural backgrounds?
The Friday before, he added a special showing for parents who were in-
vited to bring homemade foods representative of their cultural heritage
for all to share.
Of course, every school also needs to have one or more award nights to
celebrate the achievement of its students to the delight of their parents.
It is here that students get the “honor” pins and parents get their bumper
stickers: “My child is an honor student at ___ school.” At such celebra-
tions, savvy principals try to include students often left out: those with
perfect attendance, those who show the most improvement (even if they
do not have a high average), and those in the transition years who pass
all their subjects. When a principal is planning his award night ritual, he
should look for ways to expand the accolades.
A school will have many other rituals: the annual school play, spring
concert, fashion show, career/college night, student portfolio exhibition,
art show, and the list can go on. All these rituals and events bring a school
together as a family to celebrate what is important: the achievements and
talents of its students.
Another aspect of focusing on what’s important is helping members of
the school community have this same focus. It is easy for staff, including
leadership staff, to get involved in petty politics, ego trips, and power
binges and to lose sight of the real focus of the school—its students. The
bottom line for all educators is simple: It is not about us. It is about the
students. Sounds simple, but it is not. For the school leader, it is not about
power or authority, but service: service to teachers so they can do their
jobs better, service to students so they can achieve and mature.
One high school principal experienced how the unimportant can inter-
fere with what is right for students when he wanted to make 55 percent the
minimum failing grade. He brought this proposal to his leadership council
and presented the following rationale:
- First, a failure is a failure. The course needs to be made up by the student
whether the grade is a 20 or a 55 percent. - Second, while a failure is a failure, a 20 percent has a significantly more
negative effect on the child than a 55 percent.
188 Chapter 14