Polly Smith – what is important for directors

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I think that's a challenging question for me because I think it's such an important question. A particular challenge for me is having thoughts about it and then being able to live it. I think for a director, it's very important to know your strengths and weaknesses, know what you do well, and what you're still learning to do, and how to find help to sure up what you don't know. For me, it's very important to be working in a place that has some of the virtues that this place does, where people think curiously, where they come to work everyday not just because children are cute. They come to work everyday because they care about the kind of community that they're part of, and because they have interests in how children develop and learn, [02:08:00] so that they are stimulated intellectually by their work, as well as emotionally and socially. I think, for a director to notice these things about the staff, and to respect these things, to respect the heart of the staff, the hard work of the staff, the dreams of the staff, and also be willing to define expectations, and set a direction. Currently I'm still in the process of setting that direction, and I know that sometimes we're moving forward and sometimes we're moving backwards, because I have the vision of person who has just arrived, and they have the vision of people who have been part of the living history. It's so very important to be able to take the perspective of the staff, and even if you are not going to take their path, because you wanted to find a different path to understand what their path is, and to be able to take that into account. I find that an enormously difficult thing to do when many things are coming at a director all the time. I think, depending on the kind of support the director has, how well the operations work, how well and efficient and effective and happy, productive the people work for you. The ability to get that administrative wheel turning has a great effect on how much you can do pedagogically in a center. It has to be well run in order to manage the rest of it. [02:10:00] IN this center we have mentor teachers, who are very experienced, so I've had the ability to know that fundamentally this is a good place, and parents are very happy, and staff work hard, probably too hard. So I've been able to take the time I need to do what I need to do. At the same time, you can never, as a director, know whether you'll need to come to work and your day is going to be, as you predicted it, usually not. Sometimes you cannot make these things up. The stories that happen in school are beyond fathoming sometimes. The most successful director is someone who can have the very big picture, understand their vision, and how their small acts are intentional, and intentionally moving toward whatever goals they have and whatever way they've decided to move toward that vision. At the same time, there is so much going on all the time that requires you to be very reactive. To find out how to balance both of those is extremely challenging.

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