In December 1982, James Keegstra was dismissed from his position as high school social studies teacher in a small Canadian town. Two and one-half years later Keegstra was convicted on the rarely heard criminal charge of willful promotion of hatred towards an identifiable group (Jews) through his classroom teaching. Courtroom testimony made it clear that two successive principals of the school and the former superintendent of the school district had sheltered Keegstra by ignoring or failing to act on parental complaints. The two principals appeared as defense witnesses on behalf of Keegstra who argued that the approved curriculum was biased and that the school was interfering with his right of free speech. The principals' testimony raises concern about the selection and training of school administration and the functions and dysfunctions of ignorance, morality, and short-term expedience in the management of public education. The positivist technicism widespread in graduate departments of educational administration facilitates the avoidance of issues involving difficult matters of morality and ethics. Those who teach school administration need to ask what they are doing to give students the knowledge and attitudes that will keep them from becoming barbarians. Fifty notes are appended. (MLF)