Iroquois Principal's Corner

Here is a list of favorite quotes that, I think, add up to share a simple message better than I can ever say it.  When you read them, you will see they are about teaching but they speak to being a parent just as much as they speak to being a teacher. Enjoy! 

1. Seek the opportunity to show you care.  The smallest gestures often make the biggest difference. —John Wooden
2. Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children. —Sitting Bull
3. It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. —Fredrick Douglas
4. Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children. —Charles Swindoll
5. Children are educated by what the grown-up is, not by his talk. —Carl Jung
6. Children have never been very good at listening to their parents, but they have never failed to imitate them. —James Baldwin
7. Your children will see what you are all about by how you live rather than from what you say. —Wayne Dyer
8. The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children. —Dietrich Bonhoffer
9. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.  —John Steinbeck
10. I've come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom.  It's my personal approach that creates the climate.  It's my daily mood that makes the weather.  As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous.  I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.  I can humiliate or heal.  In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized. —Haim Ginott

So, what is the simple message?  There are actually a couple that may jump to your mind. Practice what we preach, handle with care, and the power of the positive are all in the mix.  I am going to think about these simple messages this week. Hope you find them inspiring too.

-Mark Krommendyk