Practice what you Preach

I was extremely frustrated and disappointed with a few of our faculty members. I felt like I had tried to make their teaching schedules and working conditions as beneficial as possible at Adamsville High School. McNairy County, located in rural southwest Tennessee, had  a collective bargaining school system under the TEA State Association. AHS was one of the schools in that system. So it happened that some of the teachers from other schools in our county were unhappy with the teachers' contract and were showing public displays of dissatisfaction. They went so far as to hold a demonstration outside the courthouse. Though they were content with our own school working conditions at AHS, some  of our teachers wanted to go and show support for their colleagues from other schools in our system by participating in the demonstration.   Man, that really hit me like a ton of bricks!

 Our school administration had worked very hard trying to make our school teaching environment the best and now there seemed to be no appreciation.  As principal of the school, their actions really angered me, especially since not one of them even came by and discussed what they planned to do before or after. I found out about it by seeing a picture/article in the Independent Appeal county newspaper. It showed some of our teachers in a group walking around the county courthouse holding signs of protest.

After reading the newspaper article and viewing the photo, I decided to enact a new policy for the faculty. I crafted a memo that would immediately limit certain privileges and increase assignments during lunch periods and during their planning periods. Finishing the communication, I sent it to each faculty member without giving any rationale for my decision. 

I did not receive much feedback as the memo began to circulate within the faculty. But after school a group of teachers (those who had participated in the march) came by my office and inquired about the new memo. They asked, "Did your memo today have anything to do with their demonstration at the courthouse?" I immediately responded that it did not. They left the office with a look of bewilderment and confusion and I made preparations to go home after a long day.

As I drove home my mind began to reflect upon what had just happened in my office. I came home and and shortly ended up on our south porch and began to examine my behavior. I was not happy with my answer to those teachers. I have always wanted the faculty and students to be honest and truthful in all situations. But I had just lied to those teachers who came by the office. I tried to justify my behavior in my mind. I spent two hours on that porch and finally came to the conclusion that I needed to correct my falsehood.

The next morning around 8:10, I instructed the faculty to get their classes started and report to the library for a short meeting. When they were all in attendance I said, "I have always wanted our teachers, students, and parents to be honest. Yesterday, I told some of our teachers that their protest around the courthouse had nothing to do with the memo. That was not true. It, in fact, did have everything to do with it. It greatly disappointed me to see that our teachers were in the protest picture. But my actions were wrong. The directive in  yesterday's memo is discontinued as of now."  I finished by saying, " You need to return to your classrooms and get back to work." As I made my way out of the library, the faculty stood up and applauded. I did not know how to read their approval. Fred Carroll, our assistant principal, has told me several times since then that that short meeting was one of the all-time inspiring and powerful moments in his time at AHS.

Leaders need to practice what they preach. We need also to acknowledge our mistakes. It has been said, " A wise man changes his mind; a fool never does". It was not that I was wrong in how it disappointed me, but in how I reacted to my frustration. Our integrity maybe our most essential characteristic in leading others. Maybe that is what they saw in that brief called faculty meeting. I hope so. 

And finally let all us pray for wisdom to see ourselves as God sees us, determined to humbly do the next right thing when we have made a mistake.