Twelve Maxims For Hiring & Sustaining Teachers: Is Your School Observing These?

Peter Gow

“Hiring season” in many schools will commence just after the Holiday Season comes to an end. We offer here a dozen maxims on teacher hiring and care, derived from An Admirable Faculty: Recruiting, Hiring, Training, and Retaining Teachers in Independent Schools by Peter Gow (NAIS, 2005)

MAXIM #1—Every opening is an opportunity

• No matter how beloved the departee, the new person can be as effective or possibly even more so
• Look at every opening from an institutional point of view—strategic and practical needs
• Even Mr. Chips retired at last; but you’re not replacing someone, you are filling a position
• If your school is already perfect in every way, you don’t need this to be reading this anyhow; the wind will just blow Mary Poppins to you

MAXIM #2—Know thyself as an institution and a culture; keep these things in mind:

• Your mission
• Core values
• Who works well in your community
• Your ideals
• Your institutional needs—on a moral and social-emotional level, not just practical
• Your community—what it is, what it is like

MAXIM #3—It takes a school to hire a teacher

• Build a hiring team comprised of more or less the same people/functions for every hire
• Advertise smart
• Interview smart
• Use the candidate as a mirror; what do you learn about the school as your community “presents” itself?

MAXIM #4—You can always get what you want

• Advertise smart
• Advertise broadly
• Work a little harder
• Be patient

Corollary A: Diversity: There is no excuse for failure

• Know what you mean, mean what you say
• A little humility goes a long way
• Advertise smart
• Try harder

Corollary B: Cannon fodder: There is no excuse for hiring “expendable”teachers

• If you’re a school, hire teachers, not just live bodies
• Don’t give up before you start; don’t hire just to get it over with
• Dorms matter, teams matter, and classes matter—but students matter more
• Be prepared to give people the proper tools to do a proper job
• “Good enough” isn’t

MAXIM #5—Check it out

• Check all references
• Do the most thorough background checks you can do
• Got vans? How about checking driving records?

MAXIM #6—Induction matters

• Make your initial investment count
• And make an initial investment in time and effort
• Know thyself and bring each new teacher into the learning and living community

Corollary: There is a reason that Mentor shows up early in The Odyssey; make sure your mentors show up early, too

• It’s a tough journey for a new teacher—provide a map and a guide
• Be alert for where your new hires are going to encounter minefields, mind games, and milestones

MAXIM #7—Good teachers can be made

• You must believe this
• Provide access, opportunity, and feedback
• More opportunity, more feedback
• Be specific

MAXIM #8—School culture is everything. Do all that you can to make yours both inviting and welcoming.

• Be a learning community
• Be a civil community
• Be an honest community
• Be a loving community
• Foster cross-generational cross-fertilization

MAXIM #9—Not everybody wants an office

• Administration: not for everyone
• Support ambition, honor commitment, develop real leadership; even your youngest and newest can be leaders
• Not all leaders are administrators, not all administrators are leaders (and not everyone needs to be)
• But don’t stint on providing opportunity

MAXIM #10—Needs matter

• Tailor-make benefits for all ages and stages
• Be serious, and try harder
• Beware the curses of paternalism: dependency, cynicism, complacency

​MAXIM #11—Old dogs actually like to learn new tricks

• And they can learn them
• Access and opportunity are for everyone
• In a learning community, learning is supposed to be fun and rewarding; is this true with professional learning in yours?

Corollary: But some old dogs like to find their own tricks

• “I don’t want to know a trick until I’ve seen it work”
• But teach a man to fish…
• Bartleby was, after all, a lousy employee in the role he was assigned; sometimes it’s worth asking what someone might prefer

MAXIM #12—All things must end

• We know why: “cause,” “employment at will”; we hear the war stories
• Sometimes it’s time: counseling out
• Counseling for growth
• Managing exit strategies
• Preparing the chute
• The Glorious End

An awkward cautionary Corollary: Don’t be stupid

• We’ve all read the newspaper stories about schools that gently moved problematic teachers along
• You want your school in the Boston Globe‘s Spotlight?

A much sweeter (but sometimes extremely bittersweet) Corollary: Be nicer than you ever thought you could be

• Sometimes the end comes in the hardest, cruelest way, often unexpected; know how you will honor lives that end in your community
• Whether someone left, retired, or died in harness, they gave a part of their life to your school, your students, and your community. Honor this in full, and never forget!