Distracted, The Mother Said To Her Boy

School leaders – heads of school, principals, superintendents – have one of the most challenging jobs. Schools are complex organizations. Leading them is even more complex – and extraordinarily rewarding. I speak from experience – 20 years as a school founder and leader. At a conference for school leaders that I attended some time ago, the keynote speaker began his speech with the following poem by Gregory Anderson, entitled Distracted, The Mother Said to Her Boy.

Distracted, the mother said to her boy,
“Do you try to upset and perplex and annoy?
Now, give me four reasons – - and don’t play the fool – -
why you shouldn’t get up and get ready for school.”

Her son replied slowly, “Well, mother, you see,
I can’t stand the teachers and they detest me;
and there isn’t a boy or a girl in the place
that I like or, in turn, that delights in my face.”

“And I’ll give you two reasons why you ought
get yourself off to school before you get caught;
because, first, you are forty, and, next, you young fool,
it’s your job to be there,” she said.
“You’re the head of the school.”

There were days during my headship tenure when I didn’t feel like getting up and going to school. Thankfully, there weren’t many, in part because I’m a disaster junkie. Schools are breeding grounds for disasters, crises, sabotage, political shenanigans and all sorts of trouble. So if you’re a disaster junkie too, you should consider getting into the business of school leadership. I loved it and you will too.

But I wouldn’t have survived without my executive coach. If you’re the head of a school and don’t have a mother to get you out of bed, I highly recommend executive coaching.