Opinion: The Day I Met Nancy Rousseau

Note: Please watch the video before you read this.

Nancy Rousseau wouldn't see me, she said she was too busy but I decided to drop by Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas anyway.

As I was talking to her secretary, Rousseau blew in, took one look at me and agreed to see me for just a few minutes. Rousseau was the principal of Central High six years ago, and she's the principal today.

I had traveled all over the country, talked to educators thinking that I was going to write a book about education tentatively called "What's Wrong With Education and How to Fix It". I never wrote the book, but I met the most fascinating people along the way and one of the most fascinating and my personal favorite was Rousseau.

Rousseau was distracted with planning the 50th reunion of the Little Rock Nine when I met her. It was the celebration of the integration of nine black students into Central High in 1957. She had reason to be nervous as there were going to be thousands of people there, and Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Governor Huckabee were coming to speak. And then of course were "The Nine" who were going to be honored.

Nancy told me yesterday that Clinton gave an "impassioned speech", and the nine students that walked through those doors in 1937 risking their lives were "very touching."

Here's the part that "knocked me out", as Holden Caufield would say, I walked with Principal Rousseau down the beautiful halls of Central High and what struck me was her relationship with the students. They clearly loved her and not only did she know their names, but she clearly loved them as well.

Nancy told me about the Katrina students that they had just integrated into the school a few months before. Ms. Rousseau anticipated problems between her students and with the Katrina kids, so she called them all to an assembly and told them they were all "Tigers" now, and that they were a family and that she expected no less of them.

Apparently, everyone fell in line except this one kid...the kind of kid that keeps teachers and principals up at night. You know the one that has such potential, but simply can't stay out of trouble and you have to let them go. That's what happened to this kid. They had to expell him. Rousseau had a personal relationship with him, talked to him a lot, but in the end, he had to go. He left Little Rock and went back to New Orleans. She found out later that he was shot and killed.

So yeah, Nancy is one of my heroes because she agreed to talk to a white haired pushy stranger in the middle of planning an amazing event, didn't take the normal route to the job that she "loves", knows all the kids names, and is so proud of her school and her kids. She says about her life in educataion "I adore the way I've lived my life". I also love the way she's lived her life.

I know Nancy Rousseau would kill me if I didn't mention that Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas is the only school in the nation that has been designated a national park.

Go Nancy Rousseau and the Tigers!