Charlene Smith - on her experience at school while her father was principal (clip)

RG: Was it difficult for you at the high school, with your dad as principal?

CS: Probably, yeah, (laughter) Eyes always on me.

RG: Eyes always on you.

CS: Yeah.

RG: Did you think you got special treatment, or tougher treatment, or the same as everybody else?

CS: I didn't get special treatment. And I don't see it being any tougher, but nothing was given to me, put it that way.

RG: You feel you earned it.

CS: Yeah. Yeah.

RG: There's a statement about your father that everybody has said: You got to school and you were late, he said "Too late for today, and too early for tomorrow."

CS: True.

RG: That's true.

CS: That's very true. That's true. And he was one that was not a tardy person, so most of the time you did arrive on time. Wherever you went you were on time. You were not late. So we grew up with that. We were not late for events or activities. We were on time.

RG: Did he bring home any of his work? His concerns for the school, for the teachers? Did he discuss it at home, that you recall?

CS: No. I just know that Lincoln was important to him, and students succeeding was very important, and making sure that Lincoln provided to the students the very, very best, that was important to him.

RG: Was there much of a turnover in teachers?

CS: No. I can remember the same teachers at Lincoln from when I started till when I finished. So there wasn't a lot of movement.

RG: Did your dad choose the teachers?

CS: Oh I'm sure he did. I'm sure he had to interview most of them, and bring most of them aboard. And then once they were there, they stayed. They didn't leave.

RG: Some people have said that your dad had eyes in the back of his head. Is that true?

CS: He probably did. (laughter) He knew what people were doing, and I think that's probably true, yes.

RG: That he walked the hallways.

CS: Yes.

RG: You didn't mess around in the hallways.

CS: No. No. Again, it was serious business, school. And that's what he expected of students, that's what students knew they had to be about. That's the same kind of thing teachers - it was serious business there. Yes, you had a good time and it was fun and we had other areas that we enjoyed doing, but when you came to school, serious business. No goofin' around. You were respectful to each other and you were respectful to the adults.

RG: Did he stand at the door most mornings to greet students?

CS: Yes. Yes. I think he did, yes.

RG: And did he know their names?

CS: Oh, yes, everybody's name.

RG: Knew everybody's name.

CS: Uh huh, you knew their parents names. So it wasn't like you were coming to a strange place. People knew who you were, and they knew who your parents were, and maybe your parents would be called or contacted. So there was really that partnership that you talk about it in today's schools, between the school and the family and the child.

RG: Did teachers make visits to the homes of the students?

CS: I would think that, if there was a need, yes.

RG: But you don't remember specific policy -

CS: No.

RG: With your father saying that teachers are going to visit each student's home.

CS: I don't remember that. But that doesn't mean it didn't happen. I don't know.

RG: Are there other memories that you have of your father as principal?

CS: I think the biggest one is that he had high expectations for students. And wanted students to be successful, and to be successful in the world of work, which also meant having appropriate behaviors that would make them successful whenever they left Lincoln. And in turn, students had that, and that did give them a level of success, whether it was in the academic arena or whether it was in the world of work or whether it was in sports or whatever, that you carried yourself in a certain way, because it was reflected on who you were and the school and you wanted to do well. That was a given, it was a given.