"Under My Watch, No Children Shall Be Killed"

Lorraine Monroe presented her "Monroe Doctrine" at the Closing General Session of the 2005 NASSP Convention.

Calling educators who do not inspire students; help them grow as people; and help them become healthier, wiser, more free, and more autonomous "child killers," Lorraine Monroe inspired Convention attendees at the Closing General Session. She said that a person must be "insane" to be a principal and that the job requires "courage, relentless pursuit, extremely good health, and an unfaltering sense of self."

However, she said that the job is "glorious" when it's done right: "It's wonderful and magical when you can turn children's lives around and make teachers better."

Monroe, the founding principal of Frederick Douglass Academy, a highly effective school in central Harlem, is an advocate of observing teachers in classrooms: "A great principal observes daily…. The fun of observing is that you keep finding things to do." She advised attendees not to go into their offices when they arrive at school for fear that they would get captured by one of the many distractions — the phone, the fax machine, dozens of e-mail messages, the secretary, a parent, or the custodian — and then look up at 12:30 p.m. and realize that they haven't seen a student or a teacher all day. Monroe said that principals must see what teachers and students are doing so they can help them.

"A child can survive almost anything if there is at least one person in school waiting for him or her," Monroe said. There are few things children can count on the way they can count on school, and "if there is no one in the building who says, 'I am the one,' the child will die."

Monroe also emphasized that educators should offer the same opportunities to all students: "When you run a great school, there's no division of what you expect from poor, Black kids than rich, White kids." She encouraged principals to ask themselves, "What is the effect of our service on the least privileged in society?"

Monroe told attendees a story of a time when she implemented a policy that was controversial. A colleague told her to be careful because she might be demoted to teacher. She replied, "I could go home in sunlight? Get a solid eight hours of sleep? Walk into the building and not be accosted by the custodian, cafeteria ladies, an irate parent? Send me back to heaven!"