Chowdhury, Urmila
(2011)
“My notion of a good school head”.
Learning Curve (16).
pp. 81-82.
Abstract
s I pondered on the title of this article, I thought
about all the school heads I’ve known over the years.
The one face that kept coming back to me was that
of the founder Principal of my own school, a small, relatively unknown institution at the time but now quite a famous school in Kolkata. What made me remember her so vividly after more than 30 years, I wondered? I remember her
teaching us, but have no recollection of what she taught,
except that it was English grammar. I do remember though,
how she knew every little detail about each student, down to
our family circumstances. I remember how she would stop
children in the corridor to ask after their siblings, parents or even grandparents. We were awed by her ability to know each child intimately and thought she had supernatural
powers! Now I realize that she knew a crucial truth about
teaching – good teachers teach children, not subjects – and
when we grow up, what we remember about our teachers
is not what they taught us but how they made us feel. She
knew that students’ personal circumstances and emotional
states affected their ability to learn. This was a school
leader who did something unimaginable: she thought about
creating a child centric, safe and happy environment where
each child could fulfill his or her potential – at a time when all other schools were chasing marks and examination results. She gave creativity a very important space, and gave as much importance to art, music and theatre as to academic subjects. A good school leader needs to be forward thinking,and the head of my school was in fact much ahead of her
time.
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