Principal for a Day
Amid all the ugliness of the campaign, I had a great experience on Monday. One of the perks of serving as Insurance Commissioner is that I get to participate in the state’s Principal for a Day program. The schools that I have visited over the last four years have had the good sense not to actually give me any principal-like responsibilities, but they have given me a chance to spend a lot of time observing classrooms and talking to teachers and administrators who are trying to make our schools better.
There were three things that really struck me about my school for the day, North Dover Elementary. First of all, the teachers all seem to work very well as a team. The day that I was there they were trying to explain the presidential election to first and second graders, and they had all come up with a lesson plan together and were sharing materials. (I contemplated steering the discussion to the Lieutenant Governor’s race, but thought it probably violated the Principal for a Day Code.) Second, there was one teacher I met—and I am embarrassed to have forgotten her name, because she made such an impression on me—who was teaching for the first year after spending many years working as a teaching assistant at North Dover. I asked her how she was enjoying being a teacher, and she absolutely glowed—it was something she had wanted to do for years, and now that she had fulfilled the requirements and been hired by the same school where she had spent years as an assistant, she was having the time of her life. It was great to see someone who was so visibly inspired by the opportunity to teach. Finally, I walked into the cafeteria with the principal Suzette Marine, and she was literally mobbed by adoring students—students waved at her from their tables unprompted and called out her name, others ran up to her to hug her. I told her it was like walking in with Elvis.
It was great to see teachers and administrators working so hard to help their kids.