administrator, teacher, student

 

staying true to the roots

a school: 

a community,

a family,

not a machine

with interchangeable parts,

all readily blueprinted

with clear exact job descriptions,

easy to dissect and describe,

rather a school should be born anew every moment,

as students learn to be themselves,

and teachers do, too,

a sacred fire kindled in each learner 

who finds each way forward,

yet a school does have clear responsibilities:

leadership to guide us through

the ordinary challenges 

of matching needs and capabilities of staff and students,

through the extraordinary challenge 

of a pandemic when procedures have to evolve fast,

while still being so radical as to keep true to the roots,

the best leaders center heart and soul upon the students,

and work to find the fittest structures

to help learning survive and thrive,

like child to parent, we only glimpse the enormous effort

a head teacher, a head of school, the support staff,

can give to allow every classroom bubble to exist,

every relationship of student to teacher,

of student to the ways forward,

I feel the gift of being at a school

where teacher and administrator alike

see the students and their needs as central,

education grounded in the individual

and in the individual becoming more,

the self expands with enlarging circles of friends,

with enlarging circles of possibilities

of how one can find and express assertion and responsiveness,

each self stumbles forward as best it can,

to be born anew each moment,

I love to be in the classroom,

to witness and help each student find their way forward,

I could thank my lucky stars,

but it is far more accurate 

to thank all the administrators and support staff

that allow the classroom to exist

and to become as good as it can be,

remaking itself every moment.

by Henry H. Walker

May 6, ‘22