Listen to Exhausted Principal Vent About Silly Students
Meet Liberty Elementary School Principal Gerry Brooks. The 51-year-old from Lexington, Kentucky, is bringing humor and truth to educators and parents across the country — and people are loving it.
Brooks is a principal by day, a job that he takes very seriously. After six years as a classroom teacher and two working specifically with struggling students, Brooks turned to administration.
When Brooks isn’t at school, he’s working his other gig as a YouTube star and motivational speaker.
When Brooks first began posting videos to YouTube in 2015, he never intended to become famous. He simply wanted a way to communicate with his staff over the summer.
But his lighthearted, humorous approach to managing the day-to-day pressure and stress of being a teacher was a hit with educators in his district.
It wasn’t long before Brooks’ videos were going viral and he was being asked to speak at various educator’s events across the country.
In the video above, Brooks talked about some of the hilarious encounters he’d had with students who were sent to the principal’s office for various reasons: pooping in the urinal, a button shoved up a nose, and a kid who “can’t” do her work because another classmate “put a hex” on her.
But educators these days also face some very serious problems — increasing work with little pay, battling those who have a general lack of respect for the profession, and the looming, awful possibility of school shootings — not to mention managing the educations of the little lives entrusted to them day after day, year after year.
That’s where Brooks comes in as a motivational speaker who expertly mixes humor and truth to leave educators feeling encouraged, inspired and respected.
He works intentionally to keep his principal work separate from his social media influence.
“My Facebook media influence is completely separate from my Fayette County career. I don’t want them to get mixed up,” he told the Miami Herald. “This job comes first and foremost.”
“It’s my personal opinion, so I do them (the videos) off campus,” Brooks said.
“If someone is offended with something, I don’t want them offended with the district or the school, because those are … my personal thoughts and my personal experiences.”
But most viewers are thankful for the laughs, and thankful to have such a powerful advocate by their side.
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