By Ashley St. Michel
Staff Writer    
    When Middle School of the Kennebunk’s Principal Fran Farr thinks of retirement, she doesn’t think about sitting idle at home. Instead, the seven-year principal and 37-year educator intends to touch other surfaces in education for a few more years.
    “I’m not ready to sit at home on my porch,” she said with a laugh. “I think of retirement as doing something to open a new door. And change helps you grow.”
    Although Farr’s term with the Middle School of the Kennebunk’s will come to end when she retires this spring, the teacher turned assistant principal turned principal doesn’t intend to hang her ties to public education any time soon. Farr said she is keeping an eye out for education organizations and college positions that might interest her.
    “This district has defined who I am,” she said. “I take pride in my role as an educator. I believe we need to help all children.”
    As Farr finishes speaking, the school bell rings signaling the end of the last period of the day. Farr points to the ceiling.
    “You hear that,” she said, as students breezed the hallways chatting enthusiastically and awaiting the sound of buses. “I am going to miss that. I am going to miss the energy here. I have an incredible staff. That is what gives you energy.”
    Farr’s own passion for education can be found on the pin she sports which depicts the symbol of a heart, with letters that spell “child.” Farr points to the pin.
    “Do you know what this means?” she said, as she grinned and pulled the pin outward for a better, closer view.
    The pin represented the saying, “Child at heart,” a saying that Farr said could sum up her qualities not just as a person, but as an educator. Farr said it is her own inner child that ultimately led to her passion for public education. Farr’s early relationship with the middle school ultimately led to her position as principal.
    The first moment Farr knew she was in the right career was when she began pursuing her teaching degree at the University of Southern Maine (USM). Farr followed her USM degree with a degree in the guidance program at Boston College.
    “I fell in love with teaching back in college,” she said. “I had a year-long internship in this (Maine School Administrative District 71) district in Kennebunk and I fell in love. But when I graduated, there were no positions.”
    Instead Farr moved to Indiana in the late 1980s and began pursuing a career as a teacher. Farr said it was at that school she discovered her love for the theory of multiple intelligences.
    The theory of multiple intelligences was developed in 1983 by Harvard University Professor of Education Howard Gardner and suggests the traditional I.Q. testing is too limited to account for human potential. The theory proposes there are eight potential pathways to learning anything. If a student is having trouble understanding something using the more linguistic or logical ways the teacher can use one of the eight approaches in the theory, according to Gardner’s Web site, www.howardgardner.com.
    The eight approaches include connecting the subject to pictures, music, self-reflection, a social or physical experience or an experience in the natural world. Through this approach, Farr said students make connections to the real world and back to themselves in ways just reading about the subject or doing the math can’t cater to.
   Farr said she immediately began implementing the theory in her classroom in Indiana.
   “I got games that dealt with each of the eight intelligences and I watched students get a passion for multiple intelligences,” Farr said.
   As students worked through their subjects, Farr said they applied the eight intelligences to homework, working until they understood the subject through each one of the eight intelligences.
   “Multiple intelligences have always been my passion,” she said. “I believe strongly that all students can be successful. You just need to give them the opportunity to be active students.”
   Farr said the theory allows students to be active learners because it can be applied to every subject and can be used to solve most critical thinking problems. She said once students start applying the theory, they use all eight intelligences.
   In 1999, Far became principal at the Middle School of the Kennebunk’s, the school which she had began her career in and the school she would end her full time career with.
   Farr said she is proudest of her accomplishments to discourage bullying within the school and said she remembers the days when students would claim they were only fooling around, after someone got physically or verbally hurt.
   In 2005, Gov. John Baldacci signed into law a bill aimed at preventing bullying in schools. Maine became the 18th state to enact legislation that deals with bullying and harassment. The law required school boards to define bullying, harassment and sexual harassment and to develop knew policies to deal with the behaviors by September 2005.
   In coordination with the law and Farr said she worked “tirelessly” to help determine what punishment is suitable for bullying. Farr said the school designed a rubric, which is used when the student is brought into the office, to determine the type of punishment for the incident. Farr said the first thing the student does when they arrive in the office is make a phone call home.
    “We have them call their parents and tell them what happened,” she said. “We are teaching students about bullying and how to turn that experience into education instead of punishment. Now when students end up down here for bullying, they write a reflective piece.”
    Farr said a student writes the piece after they have been handed their punishment. She said the change was needed since sometimes it is difficult for a student to either ask the bully to stop or to talk to a teacher.
    “It used to be the parents would tell the bully to stop,” she said. “Now it’s more like a neighborhood watch.”
    The bullying rubric encourages onlookers to talk to a teacher if they see someone getting bullied. Farr said the school is even thinking about implementing a training program for bystanders that would include what to do as a witness of bullying.
    Farr said the new bullying rules haven’t seemed to bother the students.
    “We had to incorporate rules which we had to follow in every single case, not just in a few here and there,” she said. “Prevention doesn’t work if the students don’t think you are being fair. When they know you are being fair and caring, they are more likely to listen to you.”
    As for her position as principal, Farr said who ever fills her shoes will have a few things to smile about.
    “I think the future of this school is intact,” she said. “We have a very strong school built on teaching for understanding. This is a community where the next principal can be guaranteed parental support. Whoever comes in is going to be a very lucky person.”