The ATA Magazine - Editor’s Notebook
Volume 69, Mar/Apr 1989
Principal
I think it was Grade 2. Two or 3, it doesn’t much matter. My teacher was showing me the difference in spelling between principal and principle. “Just remember the end part,” she said. She explained that G.S. (Joe) Lakie was the principal of the school. “He’s your pal, isn’t he?” Well, indeed he was. The lesson was clear, and I have used it ever since.
Lakie, then principal of Fleetwood Elementary School in Lethbridge, was every student’s pal. The kids all looked forward to getting to Grade 6 because in that year they would likely be taught by Mr Lakie. In that school, Joe Lakie had a following.
Thinking back, it’s difficult to remember precisely why that principal had such a principle effect on his school and its inhabitants. I can tell you that, apart from school, Joe Lakie was very active in the community and served several terms as a city alderman. He was also involved in his profession, serving as provincial president of The Alberta Teachers’ Association in 1955/56. And, of course, he wore the neatest bow ties.
Having never been a principal, I’m hardly qualified to comment on what is required to run a school. But fortified with experiences as a student, a teacher and a parent, I have some views on what I think it takes to make a school a happy and productive place.
To begin with, schools have a lot going for them. Places filled with youth are naturally places of excitement, curiosity and experiment. Places staffed with teachers are blessed with intelligent, caring and professional individuals. For the most part, our schools, where youth and teachers join together, are efficient, well-equipped structures, supported by a complex education bureaucracy and by community members.
But given this more or less equal starting point, some schools just seem to be special. Many factors can account for this, but I believe the most important one sometimes sits behind the principal’s desk. When a principal decides to lead a school rather than manage it, good things begin to happen.
Leadership includes good management. Timetables must be set, books ordered, lockers repaired, budgets balanced and supervision assigned. Tangible activities. But there is much more to leadership. Goals must be established, visions projected, morale nurtured, spirits raised, excellence expected and achieved. Intangible quests, yet evident in so many of our schools.
Can the nature of a principal really have such an impact on how the members of a school community view themselves? I think so. Like me, you can probably recall having entered some schools and suddenly just knowing that things were cooking in that place. One might suspect that there is a stereotypical principal-leader. I don’t think that’s the case. In my recollection, Joe Lakie the principal was a gentle man, but he had clear expectations of student behavior, which I found out about first-hand on a couple of occasions. I quickly adapted my behavior accordingly. One of my last public school principals was Sam Kyle at the Lethbridge Collegiate Institute. Nobody messed with Sam Kyle who was, I believe universally regarded by the students as one tough hombre. Yet under the brusque surface was a very caring teacher who would always go the extra mile for any of his students. And his students understood this too.
Two great schools, two fine but very different individuals leading them. Yet they shared a common thread because they ran a couple of the best schools in the system. I don’t know what that factor was, but I think it might have been, quite simply, joy. Joy created by doing well what must surely be one of the most rewarding of society’s occupations.
Volume 69, Mar/Apr 1989
Principal
I think it was Grade 2. Two or 3, it doesn’t much matter. My teacher was showing me the difference in spelling between principal and principle. “Just remember the end part,” she said. She explained that G.S. (Joe) Lakie was the principal of the school. “He’s your pal, isn’t he?” Well, indeed he was. The lesson was clear, and I have used it ever since.
Lakie, then principal of Fleetwood Elementary School in Lethbridge, was every student’s pal. The kids all looked forward to getting to Grade 6 because in that year they would likely be taught by Mr Lakie. In that school, Joe Lakie had a following.
Thinking back, it’s difficult to remember precisely why that principal had such a principle effect on his school and its inhabitants. I can tell you that, apart from school, Joe Lakie was very active in the community and served several terms as a city alderman. He was also involved in his profession, serving as provincial president of The Alberta Teachers’ Association in 1955/56. And, of course, he wore the neatest bow ties.
Having never been a principal, I’m hardly qualified to comment on what is required to run a school. But fortified with experiences as a student, a teacher and a parent, I have some views on what I think it takes to make a school a happy and productive place.
To begin with, schools have a lot going for them. Places filled with youth are naturally places of excitement, curiosity and experiment. Places staffed with teachers are blessed with intelligent, caring and professional individuals. For the most part, our schools, where youth and teachers join together, are efficient, well-equipped structures, supported by a complex education bureaucracy and by community members.
But given this more or less equal starting point, some schools just seem to be special. Many factors can account for this, but I believe the most important one sometimes sits behind the principal’s desk. When a principal decides to lead a school rather than manage it, good things begin to happen.
Leadership includes good management. Timetables must be set, books ordered, lockers repaired, budgets balanced and supervision assigned. Tangible activities. But there is much more to leadership. Goals must be established, visions projected, morale nurtured, spirits raised, excellence expected and achieved. Intangible quests, yet evident in so many of our schools.
Can the nature of a principal really have such an impact on how the members of a school community view themselves? I think so. Like me, you can probably recall having entered some schools and suddenly just knowing that things were cooking in that place. One might suspect that there is a stereotypical principal-leader. I don’t think that’s the case. In my recollection, Joe Lakie the principal was a gentle man, but he had clear expectations of student behavior, which I found out about first-hand on a couple of occasions. I quickly adapted my behavior accordingly. One of my last public school principals was Sam Kyle at the Lethbridge Collegiate Institute. Nobody messed with Sam Kyle who was, I believe universally regarded by the students as one tough hombre. Yet under the brusque surface was a very caring teacher who would always go the extra mile for any of his students. And his students understood this too.
Two great schools, two fine but very different individuals leading them. Yet they shared a common thread because they ran a couple of the best schools in the system. I don’t know what that factor was, but I think it might have been, quite simply, joy. Joy created by doing well what must surely be one of the most rewarding of society’s occupations.
