This coming spring marks the end of an era for the King Family. Our oldest son graduates from high school and moves on to college, to be followed in two years by his younger brother.
However, despite the fact that both boys will soon begin inching their way out of the nest, my wife and I are excited about the prospect of entering a new phase in their, and our, lives. Besides, once they graduate from college, we’ll still have their education loans to remind us of this important time in our family’s life.
On the other hand, this spring will also mark the transition of our daughter from elementary to middle school, culminating nearly a decade of King Kids under the watchful and caring eyes of Shirley Pinnick, a person I consider to be the ultimate principal a parent could ever dream of.
Shirley is not the type of person who seeks the limelight and I know she’d be embarrassed at the attention. Still, I’d like to share some of the reasons why she has meant so much to each and every one of the kids, as well as the parents, whose lives she has touched.
| She … recognizes that education is a partnership between students, teachers and parents, and encourages parents to play an active role in their children’s education. |
It is clear in everything she does that the kids come first and foremost. A lot of school administrators “talk the talk,” but not all of them “walk the walk.”
She sets the tone for the entire school, going out of her way to make everyone — students and parents alike — feel important and welcome in her building (that’s how educators refer to their schools these days, much like basketball players refer to their arena as being their “house”), and her example is reflected by every teacher.
She makes a point of knowing every child’s name, as well as getting to know each and every child as a person. One of her long-standing commitments is to take each child in the school to lunch at least once during that child’s tenure at the school and, to the best of my knowledge, she has lived up to that pledge. She has a gift for making every child feel like he or she is the most important person in the world.
Last month’s fifth grade fall musical provided a typical example of how new kids are always quickly integrated into the school family. One of the new kids, who had been in school less than a week, didn’t have enough time to learn the songs. Rather than hiding him in the choir and asking him to simply mouth the words, they gave him responsibility for handling the lights for the show and, at the end of the program, Shirley made a special point of publicly acknowledging the child’s contribution and welcomed him to the community.
I’m not usually a touchy-feely kind of guy, but I suspect that the young boy will remember that feeling for the rest of his life. I could see it in his eyes.
She also recognizes that education is a partnership between students, teachers and parents, and encourages parents to play an active role in their children’s education.
The school also has an active PTO, along with a “WatchDog” program to encourage dads to volunteer their time at the school. As a result, her building is always full of parents, usually moms, helping out in the library and the classrooms. In addition to the extra set of hands these parents provide to our resource-constrained teachers, there’s just something about knowing that your mom (or dad) is right down the hall that has a controlling effect on a child’s behavior.
When I was in the Army, we used to call this leading from the front. It’s a trait that all great leaders have and Shirley has it in spades. An entire generation of kids in our neighborhood will be better people because their path crossed hers.
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