With the close of last school year, I completed my 30th campaign in education. Each of those years has been filled with joy and sorrow, challenges and successes, ups and downs and a ton of stories worth sharing. My (True) Life in Education Thus Far will detail 30 or so of those stories. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed living (most) of them!
DEAN OF STUDENTS
NOVEMBER 16, 2022
The Dean of Students in a typical school setting deals with student discipline. The job description of the dean would read something like this: the dean makes sure that rules are clear, works to support staff in enforcing them, communicates with students who have missed the mark in some fashion, deals with significant behavioral issues and, regrettably, sometimes has to recommend students leave the schools in which they are enrolled.
But the work is so much more than that. The impact this work has on the school and the impact this work has on the person in the role cannot be easily described in bullet points or a series of short phrases. An effective dean knows that relationship is at the core of the role and an effective dean has a truly transformative influence on the life of the school and the student body.
I have worked with wonderful deans of students. I have worked with less than wonderful deans of students. My results in the role fall somewhere in the middle of these two poles.
In all honesty, I did not truly wish to be Dean of Students at Regis Jesuit High School Girls Division when I was offered the position. Yes, I had applied for it. Yes, I wanted to do a good job at it but my reality was I wanted to be an administrator more than I wanted to be a dean. This was the available role, however, and I was more than happy to accept it.
My office in that first year of the school was a closet in the back of a classroom. The office also doubled as the fire alarm, sprinkler system control room. Its walls were covered with exposed conduit and pipes – long before Chipotle made it cool – and the door had no window.
The very first time I had to speak privately with a student about a disciplinary issue and the door swung shut behind her, I realized we were alone and that was a bad scenario. My entire career flashed in front of me and it was shorter and less interesting than I had planned on it being.
I opened the door and we talked in hushed tones.
In my two years as dean, I dealt with dress code and tardy students, I was lied to on more than one occasion in ridiculously, demonstrably foolish ways, I confiscated a firearm (which, in the early 2000s landed very differently than it would have with me today), I facilitated a body search for drugs, held detention and, generally, found myself chafing against the role.
Dismissing one of my favorite students in her junior year because of a series of increasingly worse infractions may have been the low point for me in the work.
I think I was a good dean, but I know I miscast myself in the position.
In my third year, I would segue into an assistant principal role for which I was much better suited.
My time as a dean was relatively short and simple. The school had a small student body and no senior class when I departed. I had it pretty good. I simply was drained by often seeing students in their worst circumstances which is when I was typically in contact with them.
To this day, I live in awe of deans who stay in the work for years and who handle the pressures of the role with grace. These are the women and men who thrive when students are at their worst and help them turn the corners to find their better selves, the better way. These are the women and men who are mentors and role models. These are the women and men who make the school a true community.
I live in awe.