159When Rudolph Giuliani was mayor of New York City, he started a pro-
gram to reduce “quality-of-life” crimes. He used the police department to
crack down the graffiti artists, stop the belligerence of squeegee men (who
tried to “clean” car windows for a small fee as cars waited at red lights),
and arrest fare evaders (those who jumped the subway turnstiles without
paying the fare). At first, he was criticized for using police for what were
more nuisance issues rather than major crimes. However, many of those
arrested for these misdemeanors were found to be criminals who had
evaded their parole officers or who were wanted for major crimes. Under
Giuliani, crime declined precipitously in New York City.
The little things in a school have a major impact on its overall ambi-
ence, staff morale, and student achievement. As the role model, the prin-
cipal has to set a high standard so that all staff pay attention to the small
details. This is the theory of chaos applied to the world of the school. A
student having a verbal argument outside of a classroom at the beginning
of the day could lead to a free-for-all outside the school at the end of the
day. A teacher who finds that she forgot her keys and cannot get into the
classroom for her first period could lose her cool with a student a few pe-
riods later. Seemingly small details become big issues if not addressed.
Mr. Thelen’s first experience with minding the details occurred while
a first-year teacher at a very overcrowded comprehensive high school.
During a free period, he discovered that someone had set fire to a bulletin
board in a corridor near the English office. The fire was already out and
the only damage was a ruined display and some burned corkboard. The
Chapter Twelve