4 out of 4 stars
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In her book Real Principals Have No Class, DeLene Sholes shines the spotlight on relationships among stakeholders in the education sector. The mentioned stakeholders include parents, teachers, neighbors (community members), administrators, staff members, local business leaders, students, school board members, and staff representatives. Writing in a self-deprecating manner, she narrates her experiences while overseeing a school which had on several occasions been earmarked for closure by Florida State's Department of Education.
From her high school days, she never was cut out to be a teacher. Rather, she was the quintessential class clown who disrupted class by making jokes and strange noises; she would do anything to draw laughs from her classmates. A while later, circumstances would force her to enroll in college and get a degree and teach. At first, in Atlanta, but later, the allure of the pristine beaches in Linnett County would attract her to an elementary school nearby, Baker School.
A catch-22 situation existed at this school. The school couldn't attract enough students because of its outdated facility, and the Department of Education, on its part, wouldn't release the money to build a new school until there were enough students to justify it. An immediate consequence of this is that the school was not accredited by the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges. And parents wanted to place their children in accredited schools. Furthermore, a culture clash developed between the people who had fished and farmed in Baker Point for decades and those who were moving in and were vocal about the changes that needed to be made.
So, presently, issues that never existed before now become the talk of the town, e.g., whether religion should be taught in school or not, increasingly use of foul language in school, forms of disciplining children and the place of traditional school events, like Halloween Carnival.
Other problems highlighted by DeLene are as a result of the migration of people into the county together with their resultant conflicts. These include disparity in socioeconomic levels, education, religious beliefs, moral values, political views, and occupations. Yet others were closer to home and touched on the school going children directly, including defilement, assault of minors, and loss of a parent through divorce, separation, illness or death.
Naturally, there arose forces either seeking to quell the rising tension or fan it even more. The author talks of the emergence of the "Mafia Moms" as an example of a radical group of parents who were constantly finding fault in the school board, and especially with her. Even established school policy became an enigma, e.g., some parents felt free to wander in and out of classrooms at any time without checking in at the office.
For someone who made a late career decision, DeLene has the right disposition when it comes to dealing with people. An average person would long have thrown in the towel in many of the cited challenges she faced – one of her fervent critics, Georgia Ann, would even comment publicly that, "Maybe it would be better if we had a man for a principal."
Not surprisingly, then, she found the solutions to the myriad of problems bedeviling her in her steadfastness. Her personality is friendly, easy-going, trusting, funny, and open-minded. This is evidenced by the many anecdotes in the book and her wonderful relationship with her husband. Moreover, her language is respectful and courteous even when dealing with difficult adversaries.
The book seems to be professionally edited. However, I also came across two errors, a missing period and misplaced inverted commas. It’s a captivating book to read because of the no-holds-barred kind of approach adopted by the author; because of this, and since it’s based on a true story, I would expect the names of the actual characters to have been changed to protect their privacy.
I recommend the book to educational administrators, teachers, and parents. Moreover, elected leaders to school boards and politicians will learn a lot from it to ensure appropriate educational legislation is in place. Conversely, this book will only be unsuitable for someone with a myopic view. Lastly, because of the strong points highlighted above, I rate this book 4 out of 4.
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Real Principals Have No Class
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