An unlikely Pied Piper is Brookwood’s interim Middle School director
Hear Sam Caudill’s story, and you might just say he’s discovered the secret to reversing time.
Benjamin Button has moved to Thomasville.
Hear Sam Caudill’s story, and you might just say he’s discovered the secret to reversing time. You see, this career educator decided to take a position as interim Middle School director at Brookwood School — after he had already retired.
Caudill began his retirement in 2016 after having served as middle school director of Providence Day School in Charlotte, N.C., for 28 years. It didn’t last long.
“Retirement was interesting,” he smiled.
“Not working was a little bit unusual to some degree.”
Caudill said he had made no plans to return to work until he heard about the position at Brookwood through Southern Teachers Agency And when he visited campus this past June, it was meeting the community that swayed him.
“The people led me to make the decision to un-retire,” he laughed.
Dr. Randy Watts, Brookwood School’s Headmaster, said he was grateful to welcome an administrator who possesses such a depth of middle school experience.
“What I found immediately impressive about Sam Caudill is his genuine passion for helping Middle School kids and their families. He is very engaging and caring, yet humble,” he said.
“The truth is that he is one of the most accomplished Middle School directors in the country,” Watts continued. “He helped triple the enrollment at his previous school, ran a middle school with negligible attrition and has mentored dozens of teachers and administrators. I had to learn from someone else that a building will be named after him this year at his previous school.”
Caudill may be young at heart, but don’t worry: he is really a grownup. He and Susan, his wife of 42 years, have one adult son, Jacob, who serves as a deputy sheriff in South Carolina.
While Susan remains at work in North Carolina, they see one another every four to five weeks.
“I think we’re doing OK,” he said. “When you have a busy school and a lot of things to do — well, I’m certainly using my time wisely at school.”
What is it about middle school kids?
You have to admit it: an educator who appears to be getting younger seems the perfect fit to head a middle school — a notoriously difficult time in a child’s life.
“I have often commented to parents that students arrive in sixth grade with stuffed animals and leave in the eighth grade preparing for driver’s education,” Caudill said. “At no other point during a child’s education does more change take place.” Middle school students are starting to discover their own interests and passions, he said. Indeed, children in the sixth through eighth grades are beginning to form their own individual identities — regardless of the fact that kids in this age group appear to be desperate to be a part of some group, Caudill said.
“Parents often worry if their child is not in a particular group, then there must be something wrong. But students are moving to find self-identity and discover those activities they like and in which they feel successful,” he said. It certainly is true that tensions can run high in the life of a middle schooler, but that’s to be expected. “Kids of this age may not always be right,” he said, “and they may not always make the best decisions, but it is appropriate to let them try and fail. The middle school years allow for students to have a bruise that may come from a decision, but that bruise does disappear, and students learn a valuable lesson about choices.”
So, what’s the secret to running a successful middle school?
The first thing you have to do, Caudill said, is identify the school division as being different. “It’s not lower school.
It’s not upper school. You have to identify the age group, the opportunities, the classes that kids can take,” he said. “It has to bedifferent.” One trick, he continued, is that you must find teachers who want to teach middle school students.
“You must have enthusiasm,” he said. “I’ve interviewed many, many, many teachers, and that’s one of the things that I always look for — that they have a personality that can connect with middle school students.”
It’s the enthusiasm that teachers bring each day that encourages students to develop interests, he said.
“It could be in the classroom. It could be coaching.
It could be advising a club.
You must have that, I think, to be successful.” Brookwood teachers and their students are no exception. Caudill he is proud to be at the helm of a middle school with such a strong foundation, and he makes no plans anytime soon to implement drastic changes to the program.
“Sometimes you think you must add something new every year,” he said.
“We see that as progress.
But I think going back to refine some of the things you are doing all of the time can be equally as important. To me, that’s strengthening the foundation.”
An area of focus at Brookwood this year, he said, will be to continue to build and better define middle school spirit. A second focus will be in identifying opportunities for student leadership. “I don’t think the adults need to lead everything,” Caudill said. “They sometimes need to be in an advisory capacity” Though only two weeks of school have elapsed, Caudill now knows each student in his division by name. Funny: he says he’s the lucky one.
“One of the most important things is — and I’m sure (Brookwood) families realize this — is really what a great school they have invested in and placed their trust in,” Caudill said. “I know they’re very proud of that.”
Brookwood School
Located in Thomasville, GA, Brookwood School is a private school for grades JK-12. Students benefit from a challenging academic program, fine and performing arts, competitive athletics, and a wide selection of extracurricular activities.