Leading by Standing Still

By Laura Reasoner Jones

Having recently said no to three unsolicited central office job offers, I can no longer avoid asking myself why I keep turning down more money, power, and influence to stay in my troubled school. “I am safe here," I rationalize. But really, it’s about much more than safety.

Though I am a veteran educator, this is actually the first time in a long while I’ve worked in an actual school. In December 2006, my project management job in the assistant superintendent’s office came to an unanticipated screeching halt. Fortunately, I found a position as a technology specialist in a school near my home. I was apprehensive about the move, however. All that I dreaded about schools—PTA meetings, bus duty, large groups of unfamiliar children—awaited me.

My only previous stint in a school was during my first year of teaching, at age 21, in a small special education class in Indiana. I was so naïve I didn’t even realize I had to teach kids to walk in a line to lunch; we all walked down the hall in a loud group until my instructional assistant took over. After that eventful year, I moved to Northern Virginia and was based at the central special education office. For 17 years I taught preschool children and parents in their homes or day care centers. Then I spent two years at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards as a teacher-in-residence, and two more years in the assistant superintendent’s office. In each of these positions, bus duty, PTA meetings, and large groups of children were non-issues. It was a weird journey for a person who considers herself both a teacher...