Maybe it's because I have friends who are Heads of School, or because my
wife is an administrator who may one day decide to try to move into that
position, or because I'm over 50, or maybe it's just because I'ma
contrarian. For whatever the reason, I'm finding some assumptions running
through this thread that bother me more than a bit. Lots of people (not
all!) seem to be starting with a given that Heads of School are too old,
out of touch, and/or focused on the bottom line to be able to serve as
effective instructional leaders. Greedily awaiting their next paycheck,
they at best ignore and at worst deliberately stifle legitimate attempts at
creativity. To which I say, really? It's that bad out there??
At my own school, in the past decade, we have started a new middle school
program which was deliberately conceived to be progressive and innovative.
There was indeed push back from some alumnae (I myself got a scathing email
from one woman explaining in great detail how we had no clue how to educate
young adolescents or provide them with proper supervision and we were going
to be responsible for actually damaging kids if we continued with our
misguided plan which clearly was only intended to make money, nothing more.
Wow.), currently enrolled students, parents who had somehow expected us to
be more traditional than we said we were, and others. And our Head of
School stood firm and said we knew what we were doing and she stood by our
program. And gradually, we converted most of the skeptics and built an
identity and a solid reputation. This year, with support and encouragement
from our current Head of School, who sought and won Board approval, we
eliminated grades from the middle school, going to a standards-based
reporting system. Have I been able to do everything with the middle school
program exactly as I'd like? No, of course not. I'm sure every person
involved (administration, faculty, students, parents) would tweak the
program, few of us in the same exact ways. In the end, though, we're a
community, and the middle school program has to reflect a reasonable
consensus in support of the mission statement. And again, none of this
would have happened without Heads of School who were open to new ideas,
creativity, innovation.
Certainly, there are some Heads of School who do a poor job. I'd never
argue otherwise. But I would argue there are other Heads of School who are
doing solid work - balancing all the various interests and needs of their
schools as best they can, generally with overall positive results. Like
Peter, I wouldn't dream of taking it on for any amount of money, and I
respect those who jump into the fray and try to make a positive difference.
So to me, the question becomes what makes for an effective Head of School,
and how do we best support them and encourage that?
Take care,
Bill Ivey
Middle School Dean
Stoneleigh-Burnham School
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