I am not sure if it is symptomatic of being in my last term before graduation, but lately I feel I am loosing track of what a principal really is. I think I can still apply the definition of a principal as the administrative head of the school, but the rest of the picture is really blurry in my mind. I think as one emerges beyond the theory and starts to see reality staring you straight in the face, the question of whom you really are becomes most visible. I have seen many different school leaders through my years in education, but I have never seen the same leader in two different schools. I think I can safely state that I have never seen the perfect principal in my travels, though I have seen a lot of exceptional school leaders. It just seems like there is a lot of grey area in this question. Could it be that being a principal is like a relationship in that there is a school we are meant to administer? I think that is the question I am struggling with right now. Where is the school for me and what do I need to be doing now to be prepared for it? Being a graduate student, I have been forced to look at the theory behind school leadership and often that seems to occur in a bubble. One of the great things about schools are the teachers, but like principals, no two staffs are the same either. Often the reading in graduate school do not fully embrace the individual dynamics in each school. I think this question is either extraordinarily easy or difficult to answer though I am sure the answer is very much related to the perspective one brings into the position.
A couple questions for my readers,
1. What should the newly certified (or certifiable) principal be doing to emerge from a student into a practitioner?
2. Does the perfect principal exist?
