Do we love the children? By Eddie Roth, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"I’m trying to get my arms around public education in the city of St. Louis, and one of my primary methods is to find out who is taking risks to accomplish hard things and go talk to them.
Alice Roach is someone more than one person has pointed me to.

She is principal of Carnahan High School of the Future, on South Broadway and Gasconade Street, and recently learned that she is one of 25 winners of the national MetLife Foundation Ambassadors in Education Award, which honors principals who build partnerships in the community.

I spent about an hour with Dr. Roach on Wednesday, and hope to return next week to observe and learn more about the school from her, the teachers and students.

But in speaking with her about the kind of things that can help make an urban school district work, she told me something that seems fundamentally correct:

She says love for the children is what drives her to succeed as a principal, and that she expects the adults in the building to behave as though they love the children, too.

So, treat the children as you would have others treat your children?

This seems like a serviceable adaptation of the golden rule for educational policy."
Courtesy of Eddie Roth, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 5, 2008