The world can be a frightening place. As a principal, parent and leader, I am constantly aware of the choices that I make to minimize my perception of fear and uncertainty, death, illness, divorce, crime, war, terrorism – both here and around the world – have defined an evolving landscape for educating our students. We won’t be able to protect our students from the ups and downs of life but we can build resilience in children. Passionate and committed leaders help to identify the tools our students need today to respond to the challenges of adolescence and young adulthood, and to navigate successfully through high-risk neighborhoods and communities. Despite our best efforts, we cannot prevent adversity from affecting our students, but we can teach them to be more resilient by remaining strong when they need us to be, and changing how our students think about their challenges and adversities.

The teachers and school administrators who work in America’s largest cities face the challenge of remaining passionate about educating children who are poor, usually minority, and often labeled as disadvantaged. When the public tries to assess the performance of urban schools, it finds that achievement is invariably lower for students who are labeled poor or minority. Often, the initial reaction is to blame the schools, and more specifically the teachers who work with the students on a daily basis. If students are to be successful, they do need teachers who are knowledgeable in their content area and experts at developing relationships with their students. Teachers must also be aware of the culture of their students and seek to inspire them to rise above their communities and surroundings. Teachers and principals do matter when it comes to student success.

Teachers and students need principals who support them. My position as a school administrator places me in a position of leadership at all times. In business matters, and in community and social issues, people expect me to step out in front and guide them. Decisions that may appear simple and automatic require careful thought and vigilance from principals and school administrators. The position of principal in a school can be lonely at times. Many difficult decisions must be made annually, on a daily basis, or in the heat of the moment. That means we have to try to stay current on school district policies and on the cutting edge of educational issues. We have to treat our staff members with respect, we must value and affirm our students, we must be in touch with the community surrounding the school, our dress must be professional, and we must monitor our health and fitness as much as possible.

School leaders must also learn to listen to their teachers and students. Many students in our schools, especially in high poverty settings, make bad choices and life-altering decisions, in many cases, because they do not possess the self-efficacy beliefs that they need to succeed in school and life. These students do not acquire enough self-efficacy information from their families, home environment, communities, or schools. Many times, teachers and administrators who traditionally serve these students also do not possess their own self and collective efficacy beliefs.

In order to improve the problem solving, critical thinking, and decision-making skills of students, school leaders will need to work to raise the self and collective efficacy beliefs of their staff, students, and community. For years, schools have had the tremendous power to influence students to succeed in school by encouraging stronger relationships with teachers, coaches, mentors, and other educators who can help them become successful in college and life.

As passionate servant leaders, we need to motivate our teachers and staff to believe that we can help many children develop this concept of self-efficacy. As educators, we must develop the concept of collective efficacy to be able to build self-efficacy in young people. We have to believe we can accomplish this goal as a group: a team of teachers, administrators, families, and the community.

We all have to come together in a collective effort to support our children, to believe that they can be successful; that they can be resilient and persistent, and that they can navigate through all of the dangers in the community. The negative influences of drugs, crime, prostitution, poor housing and healthcare can be overcome if we are able to help change their self-image and belief-system. With our love, support and leadership, children can learn to fight through all of those things to become resilient and successful!