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The Portrait of a Headmaster: The Habits, Virtues, and Practices of Great Principals
Description. This book is intended to serve school principals, their administrative teams, and school boards alike. With no shortage of leadership books and books on educational philosophy, The Portrait of a Headmaster combines ancient wisdom, academic depth, and leadership acumen, and applies it to a single but important vocation: the school headmaster. It dives deeply into the three most important and complimentary roles needed to build a person into the most effective, efficient, and enjoyable leader he can be for his academic community, executive work, and collegial enterprises. As the final lines of the introduction state, "In the course of a given week, the headmaster may be called to be many things—janitor, crosswalk guard, safety officer, cafeteria server, sports coach, pep-rally emcee, dunking booth jester, etc.—but if he intends to do the most important work to which his vocation calls him, he will always have to be a scholar, a shepherd, and a CEO." From the Introduction. "Through my time serving a variety of schools as headmaster, as well as helping new schools get started, training boards, and helping build up administrative teams, especially those in headmaster roles, I came to realize that the work of a headmaster centers itself around three major roles: the scholar, the shepherd, the CEO. As I observed headmasters under whom I taught, as I watched young and old schools thrive or struggle under their current headmaster’s leadership, as I observed in myself the muscles that were or were not there in order to most effectively, efficiently, and enjoyably serve the school where I worked, these three roles—scholar, shepherd, and CEO—become the three major and stark categories which must be developed in any great headmaster. This was not only true for classical schools, I also saw it increasingly more true for any kind of school which had a “headmaster” or principal at the helm. Eventually, I would come to use these three roles, these three categories and responsibilities, to form my own annual self-evaluation, to honestly critique from year to year where I was strong and where I needed to grow, what functions I had neglected throughout the course of a busy year, as well as the weak points that developed in the school from my neglecting to mature in one or two of these three areas. This book, and the contents thereof, came about because I needed, and still need, a clear and steady model toward which I can aim in my vocation as headmaster. I needed a portrait into which I could look and get better year after year. I need the portrait of a headmaster that is beyond what I could ever fully be." |