lessons learned on the job

Yesterday I learned two very important lessons in my job. For those that don't know what I do, I work at a boarding school in bush Alaska. I do many things, but the one challenging thing I do day in and day out is discipline. Discipline entails so much, from being able to communicate with the student to getting them to understand and accept what they have done, to the parent calls, and sometimes even police involvement.

Students come first and I hope that I always do what is best for the student .

Now the two things I realized yesterday are one: decisions should not be made hastily; you should allow room for the possibility of a different outcome to be made if circumstances were to change. Secondly when communicating with parents, you should make sure they know that their kids will be cared for until they are no longer our responsibility. Reflecting on my conversation with particular parents makes me wonder how I was communicating that they thought their child would be kicked out of the dorms and would be out on the street. Yes it is possible that parents might have misconceptions or misunderstand, but one also has to realize exactly what we say, how we say it and consider that each parent might interpret the information we are communicating differently. We must also make sure we are communicating every bit of information necessary to make them understand the situation at hand and why their child might have acted so. 

I don't think I made a hasty decision, in giving a particular student out of school suspension,  but I do feel I acted to quick on that decision. Yes it may have been the right decision per the code of conduct, but these documents serve only as guidelines. Sometimes I think maybe in this situation the correct thing to do, wasn't the “right” thing to do. I have a tendency to second guess myself and I know this is an area in which I have to grow more confident in. As administrators one has to consider so many things before coming to a decision, and we don’t always know all the information or we find more information later on that can change what decision should be made.

I love my job but it is draining sometimes, so much emotional and mental labor goes into it. I pray that God gives me eyes to see what’s true and what is not and that I use sound judgment in all my decisions.