West Philadelphia teacher sets a culture of love and positivity
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- On this Teacher's Appreciation Day, we are highlighting an assistant principal who's setting a culture of love and positivity for the students at Mann Elementary in West Philadelphia.
"My goal is to make sure they know that I see them," vice principal Arnold Ford said. "And that I love them."
Around here, Mr. Ford accomplishes that every single day as vice principal and teacher at Mastery Charter Mann Elementary.
When you see him, he's probably giving out hugs, handshakes, or making phone calls to parents.
Simply because he says it's part of the job.
"Before we teach math, before we teach reading we teach kids, we teach souls," Ford said. "You got to start with love and love is the curriculum."
Last December, Ford started posting candid videos of his interactions with students to his Instagram page and in a matter of months, skyrocketed to nearly 31,000 followers.
"Interacting with kids does something to me," Ford said. "Gives me life."
Underneath his viral videos are emotional comments like "I love this, and "I feel every hug." Another person wrote, "When my kids went to school there were no teachers like that."
Which Ford says is a common misconception he hopes to dispel.
"I've been in education for a long time and I know that in every single school, there are educators just like this," Ford said. "I had teachers that spoke life into me I had teachers that believed in me, that saw things in me that I at the time didn't see in myself. So this is just my job to kind of pay it forward."
Mr. Ford may not think what he's doing is rare but his students surely appreciate him.