Q:
Who or what has had the most influence on
you in your career as an educator?
A:
Not surprisingly, my parents had a big influence on me.
Like I mentioned earlier, my father was a teacher and head
of school, my school, when I was little. When I came home from
school, I remember he would always ask me, “What did you
learn in school today?” That mattered a lot to me because he
helped me to recognize that I really did learn something every
day even though at times things seemed useless, or I thought
I was just going through the motions and not really learning
anything. My father’s questions gave me the opportunity to
reflect on my learning and helped me appreciate the value of
education.
The High School that I attended, and later worked at, was led
by a head of school, who I still have a tremendous amount of
respect for today. I had been working at his school for about
four years and had the opportunity to work for another school,
in a very different position, and get a big raise. When I went to
talk to him about it, I remember he sat me down and he said,
“Well, before we talk about this, I want you to know that I am
going to match the salary that this other school is offering you.”
And I was saying to myself, “This is ridiculous,” because it was
such a significant increase, about 30%, from what I was earning
at the time. “How could he offer this to me just like that?” But
he said,