Politics, Passion & Principals: NLC Kicks Off

By Adam Drummond

Urgency. Passion. Commitment. Determination.

These are some of the emotions I and nearly 200 fellow principals felt during the first day of NAESP’s National Leaders Conference (NLC). As a first time attendee of NLC, I have to admit that part of my anticipation included feeling a little overwhelmed. The 2015 conference kicked off on Monday, February 23, leaving principals ready to tackle Capitol Hill visits on Tuesday, February 24.

NLC opened with a discussion between political commentators Pat Buchanan and Eleanor Clift. If I have to be perfectly honest, I was a bit skeptical about what we would hear from these two Washington, D.C.-ites. Maybe this came from my own disgruntled view on how politicians typically treat American education. But, within moments of the session starting, I was captivated by Buchanan’s charm, charisma, and humor. He opened the session with a summation of Washington D.C.’s current political climate. “[It is] polluted to the point of being almost poisonous, and that is the Capitol Hill you are going to visit.”

Not to be outdone in the wit department, Clift started her presentation with a friendly little jab at Buchanan. Clift quipped, “How sweet it is I get to stand here for 10, 12, 15 minutes, and he has to sit there quietly.” Clift went on to distill our current political context into an easy primer that even my own kindergarteners could understand. She shared there is a “red America” and a “blue America,” and the country just needs to decide which side is going to prevail. (My art teacher would inform me that by working together, we could have a purple America if we mixed red and blue. I’m not sure what a purple America would look like, but, based on Buchanan and Clift’s presentations, I really don’t think we will see much mixing happen anyway.)

Perhaps what I learned most from this introductory session is that history has shown us the difficulty of American politics. Buchanan and Clift shared historical perspectives that helped shape my own understanding of this. There are deep-rooted explanations for where our country has been and where it is heading. This trajectory did not happen overnight, nor will it be fixed overnight. Both Buchanan and Clift seemed to agree that the Reagan years were prosperous. We may never see an easy time in American politics.

Regardless, we must carry the flags for our children’s education. We must work to share school principals’ message by taking stances against portability and calling on lawmakers to base accountability systems on multiple measurements. We must ask leaders to include early childhood in our alignment of education and set authorization levels that are consistent with the needs of our schools and students.

Just another fun day on Capitol Hill, right?

Guest blogger Adam Drummond is principal of Lincoln Elementary School in Huntington, Indiana. 

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