You Can’t Lead Schools From a Meeting Room

I left the principalship two and a half years ago.
I still go in—intentionally and deliberately. Sometimes as principal on call. Sometimes to offer advice. Sometimes to lead professional learning. I remain deeply connected to the work.

But recently, I realized something.

While I regularly support schools in leadership roles, I hadn’t spent a full day simply teaching alongside students—fully immersed in the rhythm, unpredictability, and physicality of it.

So I did.

I volunteered an entire day making “ice cream in a bag” with 66, Grade 1 students. On paper, it sounded simple. In practice, it demanded constant adaptation. Bags broke. Time estimates dissolved. Children needed more structure, then less. Movement mattered. Sensory overload was real, mine included.

By the end of the day, I was physically exhausted. My back ached from bending and lifting. My clothes smelled like milk and salt. I went home and collapsed.

And I was grateful.

Grateful for the reminder that school is lived, embodied, moment-by-moment work. It is physical. Emotional. Cognitive. Relational. Even when you know schools well, even when you support them often, there is something different about carrying the full weight of a day in real time.

Schools have changed—immensely—even in the last few years. The complexity has deepened. The pace has intensified. The demands are layered in ways that are difficult to grasp from the outside.

If we are serious about leading well—whether from a school office, a district office, or a ministry—proximity matters. Extended time in schools matters. Not walkthroughs. Not brief visits. Not curated experiences. Real time. Whole days. Repeatedly. Long enough to feel the fatigue, the noise, the improvisation, and the joy.

Authentic experience builds something position alone cannot: grounded credibility.

You cannot fully understand schools from a meeting room.
You understand them by being immersed in them.
From that place, wiser decisions become possible.