SCHOOL TRANSITIONS
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feel insecure once they graduate from college because , for the first time in their lives , they might not have a respectable answer when friends and relatives ask them , “ So what are you doing now ?” Now , I find myself essentially in the same place ! I tell everyone I am starting a company ( which is true ), so it is not retirement , but I think I still see the doubt in their eyes . It was easy to be a school head as everyone in my world knew what that was , and what it meant , but my next gig is not as clear to folks .
What I have learned from my earlier transitions , at least for me , is that I did not initially love any of them . I started my teaching career in overseas schools ( Switzerland and Israel ), which in the late 1970s and early 1980s were pretty free form , and I loved that freedom and creativity . I also met my wife of now 40 years while working in Israel and that too was fun and wonderful — and still is . When I moved to my first US independent school , Landon School , after a two-year stint in graduate school , I thought it was a too cautious and too tradition-bound school , but two years in I loved it and still have great affection for the school . And , I noted , give your new place a couple of years before passing judgment . When I moved to Sidwell Friends School to become the Upper School Principal I thought I had made a dreadful mistake . I missed teaching , my closer relationship with the students , and that the students generally appreciated my efforts on their behalf . I found that administrators get a lot less positive affirmation ( and this was way pre-Covid ) and many days it was hard to see how I made a difference . But two
“ What I have learned from my earlier transitions , at least for me , is that I did not initially love any of them . ... give your new place a couple of years before passing judgement .”
years in I started to love Sidwell , to appreciate the beauty of Quaker education , and to find ways to stay in touch with students .
The two-year rule was especially true when I came to Lakeside School as school head . I worked closely with the school head at Sidwell , Earl Harrison ( one of the all-time great heads ), and thought I understood how school heads operated . I forgot how cathartic it had been at Sidwell to sit around with the other administrators and complain about how Earl had screwed something up , or was doing something we disagreed with . Now , I knew other people were doing that about me . All that stuff about loneliness at the top turned out to be true . I still think it is true about school heads . There was also the fact that 50 % of the faculty and 100 % of the administration left in my first three years . But , again with time I came to deeply identify with the mission of Lakeside and to love the values of the institution . And again I found a way to be with the students and know them .
Page 12 Fall 2022 CSEE Connections