In honor of Dr. Seuss and Read Across America, I thought it would be interesting to write a story about the Principal-ler.

As the Principal-ler looks back on his career, he reveals how hard it was to transition to the 21st Century. He became overwhelmed with the systemic holdings, the observations, time…

 

He just couldn’t do it anymore.

The Principal-ler

You used to find the Principal-ler out and about,

He was young, vibrant and about to sprout.

His glass was half-full and everyone knew,

his best years were ahead and he grew. He grew and he grew and grew.

All the while his complaints were few.

He was piled on and piled on from near and far,

With his outlook undeterred, and his devices ever stirred, he continued to raise the bar.

Yet with any understanding of this, and his technology a miss, the Principal-ler decided to bow.

Bow? Bow, you ask?

The Principal-ler was responsible for each and every task!

Why did this happen, how did this happen? You want to know why?

The budget I tell you! They cut my staff! The cut them in HALF!

He became so busy he forgot to laugh.

His life became an alphabet soup: SGO, SGP, IRS, and PARCC

In order to handle this he slowly retracted to the dark.

He sat in his office all day, and night

He signed papers, watching his test scores with fright!

He watched from his window and began to sob

He figured it out, and he had a new job!

He banned kickball, running, and all types of fun

Teachers, he said, would wear their hair in a bun.

He wanted stricter and sticker measures, yes dear

Extend the minutes, the day, and the year.

All students wore grey, all teachers wore black

They filled out worksheets and bubbles, with no slack.

Then one night, when all was quiet, he dipped from his office went to the door

He posted a sign so that all could adore

“Kids are widgets, and teachers too

There will be no more trips to the zoo”

The next morning as the kids and the teachers marched to the door

They saw the sign, and looked for more.

“We can’t go the zoo?” said one girl who started to cry

A teacher whispered in her ear, “Please don’t try

Fill out your worksheets and don’t look at the sky.”

Things got darker and darker like a coal mine

Soon everyone stopped coming on time.

The Principal-ler thought this was fine

Without the kids and the teachers to bear

He could spend all day, alone in his chair.

No more questions, no more answers, no more silly chances

The school soon became covered in branches.

As time went on no one dared to arrive

They weren’t even sure if the Principal-ler was alive.

Then one day, as luck would have it

There was a little girl chasing a rabbit.

She came to door of the school that used to be

What was this building because she could hardly see.

The sign at the door had been covered in vine

She yelled to the window “Is everybody fine?”

The Principal-ler let out a gasp

He couldn’t believe somebody would ask.

“There is nothing to see here, nothing I tell you!”

The little girl thought for a minute or two

She opened the door and pushed through the webs

and ran up the stairs past all the old beds.

When she got to the office, she shivered and shook

I will get him out of his nook.

“Hey Principal-ler,” she said as she knocked and she knocked

“My Mommy wants me to go to school, but these hallways are all blocked”

“I think if we try, we could polish this up, And the kids could come back the teachers too”

“And we could take a trip to the zoo!”