New direction for Educational Leadership

I just finish reading last week's article in the New York Times entitled "Educational Leadership: Skills to Fix Failing Schools". It's part of their Ten Master's of the Universe series that highlights new post-grad programs that are popping up to both meet the needs of some of our most pressing current issues and bring in a little extra cash for the institutions that offer them. The idea is that fixing our countries school systems is "work (that) demands educators who are more M.B.A./policy-wonk than Mr. Chips". It then goes on to talk about a variety of programs, one at at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, that pairs graduate students with one mentor with a background in Educational leadership and one in business leadership. Interesting stuff.

To be honest, I've only just started to become interested in the policies, theories, and debates on Education on the national scale. When I was first in the classroom, I was trying my hardest just to keep my head above water. I was too busy trying to teach to examine the big picture. Since I haven't been able to get back in on a regular basis, I've had a chance to broaden my scope of vision. (I'm not sure if that's a blessing or a curse). I talked briefly about there being a multitude of complex problems in our public schools, but I'm only just now starting to realize that I'm not even really sure what half of them are. I just always took for granite that they were there.

I know there are some very bright people out there who have been very vocal about the fact that business people have little to no place running schools- that the two function entirely differently. I'm curious about what they would think about these new programs. I'm excited to read up on it and find out. I am currently underemployed (I have a part time retail gig that's holding me over while I look for a teaching job). It's offered me more time to really look for answers for some of the questions I've always had about education on my own terms- no required reading or professional development presentations. While I believe these things are valuable, I don't think I knew enough about what I was looking at at 23 to make much sense of them.

Do I think there's merit to these new Masters programs? Maybe. Maybe not. I do think their designers are on the right track. They are starting to re-think Education for the new century, and that, at the very least, is an idea that intrigues me.