The modern school leader must be as adept and flexible as the entertainer who specializes in spinning plates. There is the plate for each member of the faculty and staff, and each requires a slightly different pole to balance on. Some individuals need a very heavy and firm pole, and have to be spun quite often. Others can be placed on a lighter pole, and require only occasional spinning. Still others, who may be looked upon as our “best teachers” can be placed on just about any pole, and essentially spin themselves. For whatever reason, their enthusiasm and passion provide all the centrifugal force to maintain their own balance.
Then there is the set of plates for each student. Students vary even more on the type of pole, and how often they must be spun. The administrator has to help teach the teachers: how to spin those plates; change the type of pole when necessary, utilizing data to calculate the appropriate length, width, and material; and how to recognize the out of control and wobbling plate before it falls and breaks. The administrator has to also provide support structures and systems for plates that often fall off there perch, and be read to catch one that falls through the cracks. Some of our plates come to school already chipped, cracked, or broken, and we have to find ways to repair, reshape, and retool those plates. And of course, schools have to put food on all of these plates.
The parents are another set of plates to spin, and again, require all kinds of balancing acts, and modifications on how to keep them spinning. There are plates of every size, shape, style, ethnic background, and color. Some of the best plates from this cabinet are at schools helping support their students, the teachers, and even the administration. Then there are the plates that for whatever reason, we can never to right by. They may be themselves chipped, warped, or broken, but still, we must spin them too.
There are the plates of politics in the administration world. Some superiors like to have their egos spun by their subordinates, and that requires the campus administrator to leave his campus to go to central office to spin those plates. Other superiors actually like to come and give the principal a spin, which is sometimes helpful, but other times they spin him too hard, too fast, or too often and he is barely are able to sustain our himself on his pole. Oh, the media… they love to spin our plates too. However, they seem more intent on always trying to putting a negative spin on our plates. Then there’s the governmental plate, which defy the laws of physics and common sense, and in theory is supposed to spin in every direction at the same time no mater what size, shape, style, or color the plate is.
Finally, there is our own plate. We are solely responsible for keeping our plate on its perch, and spinning it for ourselves. The demands placed on us from above and below are constantly at odds as we are pushed, pulled, poked, prodded, pounded, and are subject to all the varying winds of change from every direction. We must seek to balance ourselves with good nutrition, adequate rest, proper exercise, positive spiritual practices, mental conditioning, and knowledge seeking to maintain the stability and validity of our own plate.
