The Changing Role of the Urban Principal

Time was when the sudden appearance of the principal in a classroom doorway would evoke frightened gasps from the children. To the teachers, the principal was an authority figure whose opinions were not to be questioned. Parents, too, knew their place; they sent their children to school and then kept a respectful distance from the principal's office. How times have changed! In schoolyards throughout the country it is not uncommon to see children run to hold the principal's hand. Teachers disagree openly with the principal's decisions, and often it is the teachers' opinions that prevail. Parents want to know "why": Why was my child placed in this class? Why isn't my child allowed to enter the building through the front entrance? Why can't my child bring his reader home? And the parents are no respecters of the principal's inner sanctum when they want answers. What has been happening in the schools has been happening in all institutions of public life in our country. A new idea of leadership has unmistakably emerged. We do not expect the man on high to be the fount of all wisdom, but we do expect him to use the best thinking available to someone in his position. We expect him to be firm, but we also expect him to be flexible. We expect him to consider us individually, but we expect him to make decisions in the best in