The purpose of this personal narrative is to retrospectively analyze the actions and reactions of a young, female, white teacher who was faced with the reality of the dichotomy of race and power in a large school system. When an African American male student brings a gun to school, the teacher's personal assumptions come to the forefront, bringing…

Compares and contrasts the role of the school principal in American and British schools, focusing on the author's personal experiences in observing and dealing with principals. Also considers administrator-teacher relationships and organizational patterns within school systems, suggesting that students (not principals/superintendents) be at the…

The puritan ethic that any work is good and any idleness bad is still very active in our schools. Many teachers and parents resist the idea that schoolwork needn't be overly difficult and joyless. (SJL)

Argues that public school teachers are unable to do their jobs properly because the classroom has become an unworkable environment. Advocates strong teacher associations that will force boards, administrators, and the community to make the changes necessary to facilitate real teaching. (SJL)

This article discusses the social and educational conditions that have supported the development of teacher centers, using a perspective from social anthropology, Malinowski's "functional" theory of institutions. Teacher centers are seen as a reflection of growing teacher power in a climate of shifting authority structures. (SJL)

It is not surprising that so little learning takes place in school. Teachers and principals are not employed for their educational skills, but for their ability to enforce law and order, to keep students under control. (Author/SJL)

The author describes a modern one-room schoolhouse in Ocracoke, North Carolina--an open plan building in which six teachers instruct students aged 6 through 17. He extols the school's individualized learning environment, flexibility, and humanistic philosophy. (SJL)