Patrick Gross: An educational leadership platform

On administration:

"ad" (Latin: "to"), "minister" (to attend to the wants and needs of others).

Administration is service.

My mission as a member of the leadership team is to help:

1) Attract, retain, motivate, empower and serve the highest quality teachers possible.

2) Create and maintain a safe, positive learning environment for students.

3) Champion, promote and market, in a positive but honest light, the institution to students, parents, faculty, and to the local and greater public.

When making decisions I will be mindful that:

1) A school's greatest asset is its people.

2) The group is comprised of individuals.

3) The school's primary client is the student, and the student's primary contact with the school is the teacher.

In one sentence:

A teacher's role is to motivate and empower students to learn; an administrator's role is to motivate, empower and serve teachers.

A commitment

I offer to any school I call home a great deal of enthusiasm and energy, a strong work ethic, lively and productive meetings, workshops and classes (as the assignment may call for), and quality RESULTS from and for students and colleagues.

I aspire to be a strong and positive leader in the school community, while at the same time functioning as a good team member, supportive and caring colleague, and lifelong learner.

On what's important

Ideally, educational administrators are primarily and still, excellent teachers. In order to understand me as an administrator, please know me first as a teacher:

Before becoming a principal, I taught music. When someone asked me, "Where do you work?" My answer was, "I teach." The answer "I work at the local school," didn't adequately describe what I did or why. Inevitably then came the question, "What do you teach?" My mind would reel with the complexity and depth of the answer I'd like to have given. I wanted to say:

"I teach positive values. I teach cooperation--the ability to work as a member of a group or team towards a common goal. I teach that hard work pays off, that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole, and that the individual is important and responsible.

"I teach of art, of what makes humans different than animals or machines. I teach joy, rapture and beauty. I teach that tingly feeling that runs up and down your spine when everything goes just right, and you know the hard work was worth it.

"I teach a basic subject, knowledge of which is necessary to be fully literate. I teach a language that transcends human differences. I teach a deeper level of communication, by which people of different cultures, with opposing beliefs and different native languages can share ideas and emotions. Through music, an American can sit down with a group of men and women from Russia, China, Japan and Europe to interpret the ideas an Austrian penned more than 100 years ago. And the result is breath-taking and awe-inspiring. Amazing!

"My subject is sometimes viewed as a frill, an extra. It is considered nice, but expendable. There are those who say, 'Let the schools teach my children the skills they need to earn a living. Art, literature, music, these are superfluous. Art, literature, music, I concede, are not skills necessary for living. They are reasons for living!

"And even beyond music's intrinsic value, consider these facts: over 70 studies link arts education with achievement in academic subjects. Howard Gardner defines music as one of the multiple intelligences. Albert Einstein played the violin. The undergraduate major with the highest acceptance rate to medical schools (significantly higher than biochemistry) is: music. Truly, music belongs in our schools and in our lives!"

All these things would run through my mind, but I would have been labeled a fanatic, a raving lunatic, or at the very least a bit rude if I answered like that. So I said, "Why, I teach music." They would say, "You must have a lot of patience...I'll bet it's very rewarding, though."

I would reply, "Yes, it is." And I meant it. Students, thank you for being my reward. I am privileged to have taught you, to have learned from you, and to have made music with you!

···

The preceding article appeared in some modified form in every Band Manual I published. Each year I reviewed it, and thought, "Yes, I still feel like that." I know I have many colleagues who feel as passionately about their chosen subjects; it is my privilege to work with them, and as an administrator to help them achieve their missions.

A music teacher, not a music teacher

I have been an educator for fifteen years, and an international educator for eight of those. I cannot imagine a more rewarding career than the one I have chosen.

My original college major was Biology/Premed; I intended to become a doctor. My whole life, my mother had told me I would be a doctor when I grew up. I never questioned her until my second year of college, in the midst of biology, chemistry and calculus classes, when I began to think about my daily professional life as a physician. "To heal the sick" sounded noble, but when I imagined dealing only with people's physical maladies, as they moved through my cubicle as if on an assembly line, it appeared an empty and unfulfilling life. I wanted to touch their minds and spirits!

The moment I admitted to myself that I did not want to be a doctor, I knew I wanted to teach. I chose instrumental music because it serves as a perfect vehicle to teach the curriculum I have in my heart, a curriculum which revolves around words like RESPONSIBILITY, INTEGRITY, SELF-WORTH, INTERDEPENDENCE, SYNERGY, LOVE, and JOY.

While I have had considerable success with my instrumental ensembles, the ratings at festivals, the good concerts, in fact even the teaching of music itself, have been secondary to opening individual students' eyes to their worth and their capability.

"To make a positive difference in people's lives"

About ten years ago, I first read a new book, Steven Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I felt Covey gave voice to many of my own convictions and gave me some new ideas as well. I enthusiastically went about drafting my "personal mission statement." I have since reviewed and rewritten it many times, but the key phrase that always remains is the phrase above.

I want to make a positive difference in the lives of those I touch.