The Secondary Principal's Perspective

The Power of Attitude and Choices.

As I contemplated this month’s article I finally settled on a little reflection and some revelations.  I have been involved in some aspect of education my entire life.  My parents were adamant about the value of education and would not accept any lack of effort in school.  I grew up with a strong sense that hard work and education were the keys to success.  I graduated from high school and entered college fully expecting to work my way through, get a good job and start a life.  But life has a way of making you work your hardest to reach your full potential.  I got married after my freshman year of college, and thought I must get a job to support my wife.  I was fortunate to have a very supportive family, especially a new mother and father-in-law who convinced me that education was the key to our family’s future.  I finished college with the support of my wife and family and have been in education for the past 26 years.

I have continued to learn both formally and informally for all my life and have formed an educational philosophy that helps guide me in my current position.  First I believe every student can and does learn everyday, we need to focus that learning in a direction that is productive for the student.  This is not to say that learning and education is easy for every student in every subject, some students or some subjects require extra work or a different type of presentation, or special help, but it is worth the effort.

I am convinced that attitude is the most important determining factor for student success.  Students who enter a class or a project with an attitude that is positive and focused on success will have that success.  Those students who do not have an expectation of success often do not experience success.  Gandhi writes “If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it, even if I did not have the ability in the beginning”.  I have students tell me all the time they are not smart or cannot do the work, I always respond with a reminder that they are as smart and successful as they think they can be.  Attitude determines aptitude.

Through my career I have also become convinced that all choices have consequences, some positive, some negative.  The key is to make choices that lead to positive consequences.  Students and teachers make hundreds of choices everyday, we want our teachers and students to make choices that lead to better learning and positive consequences.

The Bayard schools recently hosted a speaker by the name of Ron Glodoski.  Though Ron’s life has been very different from mine, our conclusions about how to become successful are very similar.  Ron emphasizes having dreams and goals and making the choices to reach those goals and live your dream.  In his book How To Be a Successful Criminal (it is not really giving pointers on being a criminal) Ron writes that people should remember “The only person who can stop you from being successful is you”, but also adds “Most people aren’t successful the first few times they do something.  For this reason, you can’t let failure stop you if you want to be successful”.  Mr. Glodoski also shares three ways for students to turn their lives around: 

1. Make the choice to believe in yourself.
2. Set goals.  Where do you want to end up?
3. Surround yourself with people who’ll help you along the way.

This is an important message for our students; they have the ability to be successful with goals, proper choices, and a positive attitude.  If you would like more information about Mr. Glodoski you can visit his website at www.ronglodoski.com.