Pygmalion Principles

A BLUEPRINT FOR BUILDING PREMIER EDUCATIONAL LANDSCAPES IN YOUR COMMUNITIES

This book is both a Memoir on challenges facing public schools and a Manual showing how those can be turned into opportunities for creating effective and, even, exceptional schools.
The Memoir depicts a career which spans 30 years, 4 schools, and an entire district beset with special characteristics and problems. It is, at times, both somber and funny. It shows communities at their best and communities at their worst with teachers causing or reflecting both ends of the continuum. It also shows how an administrator can steer their buildings and districts toward state and national recognition
In a stark accounting, this book delineates both blatant and subtle discrimination against females in a “man’s world” and mirrors history in its critical approach to women administrators. The Chapter entitled, “How to Break through the Glass Ceiling without Having to Sweep up the Mess” offers suggestions on how women can use some of that history to their advantage.
Included in the Manual portion of this book are also sections that offer step-by-step instructions for administrators who want to raise both the level of expectation and the performance of staff and students in an ongoing quest for excellence. There are also “recipes” for raising test scores in a meaningful and dramatic way.
Several “fun” events encapsulated in both pictures and narrative excite not only students and staff but also communities and can be easily replicated. Although many of these events were 1st in the country and featured in magazine and newspaper articles, they are easy to copy—especially at the elementary level.
Lastly, there are tips for parents and ways to include them in this process we call education. Given the recent Covid-19 crisis, enlisting, and enlarging the role of parents is especially timely.