I just resigned, had the resignation meeting, etc. this morning and it was most difficult but I got through it. As I sat there talking to Paul Chmelik and Beth Coyle, the school director and principal of the middle school respectively, it occurred to me that this place, the American Embassy School in New Delhi, is built on people.
It always goes back to the quality of the people one is working with and Paul and Beth are the best administrators I have had in my career, with the exception of the unmatchable Diana Noonan in Denver, who, if she were cloned, would in just a few years, completely change the landscape of world language education in the United States.
So I’ve decided that, instead of being all upset about leaving here (it totally couldn’t be helped which I won’t go into here) and leaving this out-of-sight community of wonderful people and fantastic educators, I will just take what I have learned from being around these people (many in their own fiels who are of the quality of Linda Li and Zach Al Moreno) home to the U.S. and try to spread that kind of community in education in the U. S.
It is through building community – inside and outside of our classrooms – that we will slay the beast.