Reflections of a Head Master‪.‬

HAVING JUST RETIRED after forty-five years as a head master, I should, I suppose, be able to reflect back on what has happened and on what I have seen and experienced. I do, however, fear that the salient fact is that after forty-five years I simply have not been able to get promoted. Be that as it may, I suppose that forty-five years in one job justifies this reflecting process. When I first came to office, Dwight D. Eisenhower was president and the changes that have taken place in private education parallel, I suppose, those that have taken place in the nation as a whole. To me, the most alarming change has been the disturbingly low average tenure of head masters in the United States. The reason for this is simple. It lies in the fact that we, and boards of trustees in particular, have been turning the leadership roles of our schools over to the wrong people. I have seen too many people assuming the leadership of schools who really should have gone into business or some other profession. These people simply want to run something. They want to be in charge. This one fact has caused me to divide head masters into two categories. These two categories can be distinguished by the way that the people themselves pronounce their title. Some put the emphasis on the first part of the words, headmaster, and some put the emphasis on the second part of the word, head master. I have always made e very effort to fall into the latter category, and as a result, have always felt that I was first and foremost a schoolmaster who happened to head a school.