Erica Jacobs: Giving thanks for a good principal
By: Erica Jacobs
Examiner Columnist
November 25, 2009
Last week's column listed what new teachers can't possibly prepare for -- problems created by bad principals. Of seven principals I worked under during 23 years of public school teaching, only one was exemplary -- and I'd like to thank him.
Charlie started out at Oakton as an assistant principal. His first day on the job, he was bamboozled by one of my students who pleaded extenuating (and heartbreaking) family circumstances as the excuse for cutting my class several times. I had caught the student in one lie already and was suspicious.
Charlie, even more of a bleeding heart than I was, sat with me and the student and worked out a deal whereby his transgressions would be expunged if he came to class from then on. Even I was persuaded the student would turn the corner in response to Charlie's compassion -- until he lied about his next several absences and both of us realized we had been "played." Charlie didn't make that mistake again.
His big heart led him to more wins than errors, though. He was in the hallway greeting students early every morning and attended all athletic events, bonding with students from the start. When the school's principal took a job in another state, Charlie was asked to take her place -- to the surprise and delight of teachers and students.
The love affair with the school continued. Charlie had dinners for student athletes and student scholars, and treated the faculty to food during principal drop-ins and afternoon gatherings. If he wasn't in his office or in the halls, he was at Costco buying platters of food for some event he was sponsoring. When my teaching partner and I were awarded National Board Certification, he announced it with a banner headline at the school's entrance and celebrated by inviting all faculty to an after-school ceremony -- which included food, of course.
The food and his attendance at games were simply manifestations of his real strength: He loved the students and teachers. He greeted every day as principal in an upbeat manner, and steered conflicts and complaints to positive resolutions. He poked fun at himself in the videotaped skits that became part of the weekly morning announcements; students wrote "Saturday Night Live"-type sketches featuring Charlie and couldn't believe their good luck when he always agreed to participate.
In my mind, he made the biggest difference in his support of the interdisciplinary courses that required extra staffing. He was pressured by the superintendent above him to pull the plug on some of the programs that were difficult to schedule or underenrolled, but he managed to hang on to those choices when they were educationally sound, even if fiscally marginal. He won my loyalty early on when he told me that Senior Seminar, the course I helped create and taught for 10 years, was the "jewel" of Oakton's course selection.
When he retired, students and teachers missed him terribly. Ratemyteachers.com was full of student comments like "Bring back Mr. Ostlund!" He was my principal for only four of 23 years, but it's his term of leadership that stands out in my mind. Thank you, Charlie Ostlund, for showing that a good principal is not a character found only in fiction.
Erica Jacobs, whose column appears Wednesday, teaches at George Mason University. E-mail her at ejacob1@gmu.edu.
