Students Need Us in Their Lives, Just Not in Their Faces

A superintendent discovers the payoff from personal involvement in the co-curricular lives of his students

During more than 30 years as superintendent of four different international schools on two continents, I regularly sought opportunities to break down barriers between my role and the students. I believed that interacting with students would provide me with a window into the professional lives of teachers as well as the daily experiences of students and school operations.

Wherever I worked, I greeted students by name at the door of the school most mornings and shadowed different students through their day’s schedule every few weeks.