Time to Get Dressed

How was your weekend?

I’d be willing to bet you watched at least a little football yesterday. I’d be surprised if you didn’t think about politics once or twice this weekend. Probably you did other things to relax…

Me? I watched the Game. I slept late on Saturday. The weather was nice (especially for February) so I took my dog out and played with it some. I blogged a little. My wife and I went to an auction house that we visit on a semi-regular basis. I cooked a couple of meals (I enjoy cooking). I drank a little Burgundy from a brandy snifter I got at the auction a year or two ago and read some Hemingway. We watched some TV – Numb3rs on Friday night (a whole show about math, how cool is that?), Some football on Sunday night.

How’s your Inner Person? I took a graduate class a couple of years ago that used a text by Marsha Speck. The book was The Principalship: Building a Learning Community. In it she looks at the different roles a principal has to play – educator, manager, leader – and concludes that those roles are all held together, more or less, by the principal’s “inner person.” In her own words, “The inner person is a term used to describe the personal beliefs and internal balance that the principal needs to keep…” (p. 21). She goes on to devote a chapter to the subject and, among other things, says that the Inner Person helps to keep a balance between work and life outside of school.  While Speck is writing specifically about principals (something I’m not, but might be someday), my guess is that she’d agree that the concept applies to most educators, and maybe to most people.

Did I do anything related to work this weekend? Sure. I looked over my lesson plans and touched them up. I spent a little time preparing for some meetings later today. And I mailed off some paperwork that I hope will resulted in some additional certifications being added to my license.

I’m not suggesting that I don’t think about my Inner Person during the week, or that work should completely disappear on Saturdays and Sundays. But the weekend gives me some extra time to think about my Inner Person. So I’ll ask again: How’s your Inner Person? Speck’s contention is that if you neglect your Inner Person, you probably won’t be a leader for long.

While you think about that question, I’ll get dressed and go to work.

Greg Cruey, Guest Blogger