Kind or Good School Leader?

Haydelyn Enriquez-Serafica

You are one of the lucky teachers in the country’s education department if your school head is kind and good . But if you were left to choose between a school head who is kind and another one who is good,what kind of a leader will you choose or what trait of a school leader will you choose?

Kind and good, they both connotes positivity. These two traits seem to be the same but these two are not. Kind school leader or a good school leader, each has their own character to play. School leaders differ in characters and personalities hence as the line goes, different strokes of school heads so they also differ in the way they lead in terms of giving Instructional Supervisions, in Human Resource Management and in Managing School Resources. Let’s try to see the good leader and the kind leader among these areas of school management.

In Instructional Supervision, a kind school leader looks at the school conditions during instructions on school hours. For a kind leader as long as there is a meeting between the teacher and the learners during school hours that can suffice the day. Quality of instruction is only secondary. A school leader who is good checks the quality of teaching and learning in school. This leader makes sure that there is always a quality interaction between the teacher and the learners. This type of school leader makes sure that at the end of the day, there is always an addition of learning to the learners.

In terms of Human Resource Management, a kind leader considers the excuses of his/her co-workers, the teachers. For her good working relationship means not declining the teachers’ requests be it whims or necessary. Even if at times, the teacher’s time to teach is affected and the result is shortchanged of giving quality

instruction and contact time to the learners. A good school leader knows when to say no. He/She will do it in a subtle way. This leader explains the pros and cons of the things. If the teacher decides then the said leader let him/her face the consequence of the teacher’s actions. This leader always sees to it that in every teacher’s wrong decision or action the least affected are the learners. This type of leader knows that the business of the department is education. This school personnel believes that the very reason why people in schools are teachers is because of the learners. Good quality of education for the learners is the primary concern of good school leader.

In Managing School Resources, a kind school leader doesn’t oblige the school people to take good care of the school facilities or be careful and mindful in using the school resources, be it water, electricity and other school expenditures.This kind leader is the only in-charge of the major and minor issues, fixing of school things, in all days. This school leader doesn’t share the accountability and responsibilty of taking good care of the school and its facilities. Teachers might not like it, which is the very first reason why this leader does all the things in school whereas a good leader shares the accountabilty and responsibility to the school people and even to the community. A good leader makes the school matters and things own by every teachers and other school personnel.

Who do you think can win the genuine respect of the school people and even in the whole community, the kind leader or the good leader?

To the teachers who aspire to become school heads will you be a kind leader or a good leader? For me, one thing is for sure it’s not easy to become a good leader. It’s takes a talent and hands on experience to become one.

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The author is Principal I at Buenavista Elementary School, Mexico W est District