Managers Of Virtue Public School Leadership - 3350 Words

Managers of Virtue In the book, Managers of Virtue: Public School Leadership in America, 1820-1980, the authors address the difficulties of today’s American public school system in light of the role played by school leadership in the building and reconstruction stages of public education in America. The book provides the reader with a historical visit to public education and, particularly, to the lives of those who created, managed, led, shaped, and reshaped the American public school system. The authors’ state that schools increase in meaning through the influence of structural procedures, as well as social values accredited to it. The authors support that understanding the leader in the schools of the past, i.e., his social†¦show more content†¦Those conditions are always specific to time and place – that is, historical and particular† (p. 12). Throughout this book, the authors appear to want to emphasize two key things: (a) Illustrate how the legacy of American education has lost meaning in the eyes of those who have inherited it from the founding leaders of the public school system; and, (b) To challenge those currently in leadership of public schools to take seriously the task of building â€Å"a new coherence and community of commitment in public schools† (Hansot Tyack, 1986, pp. 249-262). The authors believe that, in America, there is a notable lack of faith in public education, and that such faith must be reestablished if public education is to be effective. In the forefront of this process, to restore faith in public schools, the authors view the part of the educational leaders as a prominent one. In chapter nineteen, Hansot and Tyack seem equably inclined toward purposeful structuralism in regards to the role that schools play, or must play, in changing society. Their argument on the destruction of the traditional American faith in public education is very well stated, but the course of the approaches of intervention seem focused on changing the schools in order to change societal attitude towards schools rather than the opposite. The authors state the following, â€Å"what might be some common grounds of agreement on such a public philosophy of education? A commitment to a common school starts