School principal

“ The new demand here referred to can be described by means of an example which exhibits one of the greatest weaknesses of our present school system. Schools of all290 grades which have grown large enough to employ three or more teachers commonly have an officer who is known as the principal.
In the small school the principal spends most of his or her time in teaching. In larger schools the principal does no classroom work. In both cases the principal is universally selected for a special position in the school because of his or her success in teaching. ”

“ School leader– The term school leader means a principal, assistant principal, or other individual who is—
(A) an employee or officer of a school, local educational agency, or other entity operating the school; and (B) responsible for— (i) the daily instructional leadership and managerial operations of the school; and (ii) creating the optimum conditions for student learning. ”

“ The new principal is a man of a great deal of promise—the principal of the intermediate department, a young man Who is an earnest student and who has already had some experience in teaching. Other teachers were equally well chosen.
The lower schools came up as usual, marching to the music of the piano. After appropriate devotional exercises, the pupils re-passed to their school-rooms below, and the other classes to their respective duties. ”

“ If the teacher really teaches, and faithfully watches the mental growth of her pupils through the work of one or more years, she alone is the best judge of their fitness to do the work of the next grade. The examinations of a superintendent should be to ascertain whether the principals under his charge have the requisite ability and knowledge to organize, teach, and supervise a large school. The examinations of the principal should test the teaching power of his teachers. And, lastly, the teachers should test by examinations the mental growth of their pupils. ”

“ In general, it is evident from a study of American school systems that emphasis has not been laid on central organization. Cities have employed a superintendent when they had a population of five thousand inhabitants and have expected a single officer to continue to perform all the duties of that office when the population has increased to one hundred thousand. A principal is put in charge of a high school of two hundred students and continues to have full responsibility for the school when it increases to eight hundred students. ”

“ I put it up to you,” the speaker shouted above the noise. “Has a bunch of teachers, or even the principal or superintendent, a right to meddle with us, to say who we shall have for presidents of our classes or of the whole student body, if this thing of having a school president goes?”
“Yes! Yes!” “They have!” “They ought to!” came from different quarters.
“I’d like to know why,” the Kid blustered.
“When students of this school, your own candidate even, follows girls and women on stilts—” “Sis” Jones began.
“Girls on stilts!” ”

“ The school administration is vested in a single head, the superintendent of schools, who is appointed by the board of education of three members. In charge of each school-building is an executive principal, whose duties are concerned with program-making, with supervision of the pupil’s schedules, with the general maintenance of order and discipline, and ordinary administrative work. ”

“ The school spirit is abroad in the consolidated school district; people are thinking and talking school. It becomes the customary and fashionable thing to send children to school.
Better Supervision.—There is also much better supervision in the consolidated school; for, in addition to the supervision given by the county superintendent or his assistants, there is also the supervision of the principal, or head teacher. This is in itself no small factor in the making of a good school. Good supervision always makes strongly for efficiency. ”

“ There is a principal to each school, assisted by a numerous and efficient staff of teachers, who in their turn are expected to go through a course of studies at the Normal School. The number of teachers required for these schools is very great, as the daily attendance in two of them exceeds 2000. The education given is so very superior, and habits of order and propriety are so admirably inculcated, that it is not uncommon to see the children of wealthy storekeepers side by side with those of working mechanics. ”

“ Let the Sunday-school teacher talk to his Bible class, the Superintendent to his school, the pastor to his congregation. Write an article for the village paper about the good work of the circle among the people. Secure the coöperation of the intelligent people in the community, the doctor, the lawyer, the editor, the principal and teachers of the public school, and let the town be awakened on the subject of the People’s College. If these educated leaders fail to take interest, do not be discouraged, but go on and get up the circle among the few who will be aroused. ”

“ A principal of a high school in one of the prominent New England towns dismisses a highly talented pupil because, to quote verbatim from the original school document, “He is not amenable to the discipline of the school, as his school life has been too short to establish him in the habit of obedience.” ”

“ From those selecting advanced work in pedagogy the board in charge of the affiliated secondary school should elect as many teachers for its school as are needed, employing them for two-thirds time at one-half the usual pay for teachers without experience. Under the professor of pedagogy of the college, the principal, and the heads of departments of the school these student-teachers should do their work, receiving advice, criticism, and illustration as occasion requires. ”

“ The appointment of a Director of Public Instruction, the actual operations of inspection, the Establishment of a Normal School under a competent and zealous Principal, are among the facts serving to assure the native mind that Government is in earnest in the matter of public education. ”

“ Poor and foreign-born parents, coming to the school, are insulted and abused. Teachers are scolded before their classes. The teachers take the matter up in a faculty meeting, and the principal is interviewed by a committee from the faculty, and hears a strenuous and detailed discussion of his conduct. The teachers object among other things to having their efficiency judged by their ability to sell tickets. The principal promises to reform, but does not, and finally thirty teachers sign a petition to the superintendent. ”

“ The following resolutions were adopted by the Board in connection with the organisation of the proposed school:—" (1.) One of the masters shall hold the appointment of Rector or Principal, and shall have the general oversight of all the classes within the institution, and shall be responsible for the good government, efficiency, and success of the same; but each master, as far as possible shall have the charge of a distinct department of instruction. ”

“ In the Allen Street public school the experienced principal has embodied among the elementary lessons, to keep constantly before the children the duty that clearly lies next to their hands, a characteristic exercise. ”

“ It was her influence in that school that induced the principal to abolish corporal punishment and to rule by moral suasion. When the Normal College was established, in February, 1870, she accepted the position of assistant to the president in preference to that of principal of a grammar-school which was offered her. In the past twenty-two years' service in the Normal College she has filled her place with zeal and executive ability. ”

“ In many schools the demand is for the carpenter, the football coach, and the peanut vender combined for principal rather than the man who sees the deeper problems of mental development.
9. The teacher or teachers should be loyal to their school.—The teacher who teaches in a district or school where she from any cause dislikes the place, will not teach her best school. In cities some teachers teach in certain districts only under protest, and never do their best work. I should not seek to hold a teacher in my school when I knew she was deeply dissatisfied with me or the school. ”

“ The necessity under which many labor, of teaching school in order to pay their own school bills, makes attendance somewhat irregular. The grade of the school is being steadily advanced, and under efficient teachers and Principal, the pupils are making solid advancement. ”

“ For the pupil, organization means a degree of flexibility and individual instruction extraordinary for a public school. Except in the lowest grades, the pupils are classified by subjects as well as by grades, so that practically college methods obtain. Each pupil has 102his own schedule or program, just as the college student has. The executive principal corresponds to the college registrar in supervising these individual records. The pupil is promoted by subjects and not by grades, and may be promoted or demoted at any time by the supervisor of instruction, acting with the teacher. ”

“ In all the former part of the day the scholars are divided into classes, according to their proficiency in particular branches of study, and they resort to their recitations for instruction. They now are divided into six sections, as we call them, and placed under the care of superintendents, not for instruction, but for what may be called supervision. Teaching a pupil is not all that is necessary to be done for her in school. ”

“ I am told now by a group of teachers that the new superintendent is doing well, and that there is hope for a better deal in the schools; new buildings are going up, and everyone wants to forget the old unhappy past. The teachers ask me to plead for the cause which lies nearest to their hearts, that of teacher participation in school control; and I answer that this is the thing for which my book is written—to urge that those who do the work of teaching, and really know about teaching, shall take the place of traction magnates and real estate speculators in charge of our children. ”

“ He should know every scholar, so that he can check them off without asking the teacher the name, and should have a quick, vigilant eye, not only for his own duties, but, also, in order to communicate valuable suggestions respecting the school to the superintendent. ”

“ Nowhere to-day can you find in village schoolmaster, district or town school teacher, superintendent of instruction, or learned professor, a figure that fills out and continues just the portrait of the typical pedagogue of a generation or more ago. ”

“ He should be wise to discern, select, and adjust proper teachers to their places, classify and arrange the scholars, and in these things he should not be overborne in his judgment. He is usually chosen by the teachers annually, and will do well to take them for his counsellors, and often consult them, collectively and individually; for while he is the superintendent, the head of the school, and as such a cheerful obedience should be tendered to him by all, yet, [41] he is not the sovereign. ”

“ The scholars who attend a school where the superintendent does not keep good order, where the teachers are irregular and disinterested, and where everything is permitted to go along as by mere chance, these scholars will partake of the influence of the school, and will individually become like the school. ”

“ Teachers need training. They need to be taught how to prepare the lesson; how to secure attention; how to teach infants, juveniles, and adults; how to apply Bible truths. Superintendents need instruction how to gain order; how to organize and [30] classify; how to open, conduct, and address and review the school; how to train the teachers and enlist the interest and service of parents, pastors, and the churches. All need inspiring with the spirit that will go forth and plant new schools, and gather in and secure a good religious education to every child in the community. ”

“ Though the Superintendents as such, have necessarily speaking, no teaching to do, still they ought particularly to secure the progress of every pupil in what may be called the essential studies, such as reading, writing, and spelling. For this purpose they either see that their pupils are going on successfully in classes in school, in these branches, or they may attend to them in the Section, provided that they never allow such instruction to interfere with their more appropriate and important duties. ”

“ My first and deepest concern would be the spirit of the teachers in charge of the school. I should want a faculty mature enough to have lost much of its freshness, but fresh enough to be growing still. ”

“ By sending better teachers into the public schools, you will effectually aid in the removal of this difficulty. The Normal School is, then, no substitute for the high school, academy, or college. Nor do we ask for any sympathy or aid which properly belongs to those institutions. ”

“ Providing assistance to local educational agencies for the development and implementation of professional development programs for principals that enable the principals to be effective school leaders and prepare all students to meet challenging State academic content and student academic achievement standards, and the development and support of school leadership academies to help exceptionally talented aspiring or current principals and superintendents become outstanding managers and educational leaders. ”

“ In this capacity he was also ex officio the superintendent of common schools, and rendered valuable services to his state in perfecting and expanding the free public school system, and in establishing state normal schools. ”