Amerman Elementary Principal Says Goodbye to Northville

Steve Anderson, principal of Amerman Elementary School, will be retiring in a few short days at the end of this school year.

Anderson, 64, of Canton, has been the principal at Amerman since 1992 – a total of 21 years.

"There was a real value for education in Northville," he said about his reason for coming to the city after working in Yale, Mich.

Anderson is passionate about discovering the best ways to organize education for his school and the district, even traveling to Japan about four years ago to see how its organized there.

He said there are three dimensions to a curriculum: the concepts that are taught, how those concepts are organized and how students are encouraged to apply the knowledge.

"That's where the fun comes in," he said.

Anderson encouraged applied learning at Amerman like the Solar Sprint where fourth grade students design, test and race solar cars made from Legos. 

He has worked to instill that attitude about learning for years at Amerman. For example, it was the first school in the entire district to have a robotics team, he said.

The school has also achieved national recognition, like in this year's Academic Games. The Northville teams swept the national titles at all three of the mathematic and logic games.

"It's a privilege to be able to coach these kids, teachers and parents," Anderson said.

He learned while in Japan that parents there are heavily involved in their children's schools. He created a parent library at Amerman, a resource open to parents whenever they need it. The school also won the National Parent Teacher Association Award of Excellence in 2004 and 2007. 

"Children do better when the parents are involved," he said.

He said he has more ideas of how to run the school better but isn't always able to implement them.

"If they let me run the school the way I wanted to, I might stay," he said. "But they won't let me do that."

Anderson, who has one grandchild and another on the way, said he plans to spend time with his family. However, he won't remove himself entirely from the world of education.

He plans to write his book, "The Forgotten Factors," which is about what politicians forget when reforming education. The three factors are culture, community and parent involvement, he said.

"In certain cultures, you don't have to push for education. Everyone knows its importance," he said.

That's the culture Anderson created at Amerman and hopes will live on after he's gone.

What are your memories of Anderson? Tell us in the comments.