LETTERS.True Partners BY ROGER HERTZ Retired Executive Director, Berks County Intermediate Unit, Wyomissing, Pennsylvania Wyomissing is a borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States, established on July 2, 1906. The population was 8,587 at the 2000 census, but after the 2001 merger with neighboring Wyomissing Hills, the combined 2000 Census estimate was 11,155 making it the most populous As a former vice chairman of the Berks Business Education Commission in Berks County, Pa., I want to endorse a point made by Edward Phillips Edward Phillips (August, 1630 – ca. 1696), was an English author. He was the son of Edward Phillips of the crown office in chancery, and his wife Anne, only sister of John Milton, the poet. Edward Phillips the younger was born in the Strand, London. , the current executive director, in his guest column ("Making the Transition from Education to Business") in the April issue. In writing about a school-business partnership, he wrote: "... the coalition can only help the education system. It cannot control it." Well stated and true. A View of Women SAMUEL COHEN For the composer, see Samuel Cohen (composer). Samuel T. Cohen (born 1921 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American physicist who is known for inventing the W70 warhead and the "enhanced neutron weapon" or neutron bomb. Partner, SDS 1. (company) SDS - Scientific Data Systems. 2. (tool) SDS - Schema Definition Set. Consultants, North Massapequa, New York North Massapequa is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in Nassau County, New York, United States. The population was 19,152 at the 2000 census. North Massapequa is a community in the Town of Oyster Bay. Since retiring from the superintendency Su`per`in`tend´en`cy n. 1. The act of superintending; superintendence. , I have conducted superintendent searches on Long Island for the past seven years with two colleagues, so I was interested in the article by Susan Chase and Colleen col·leen n. An Irish girl. [Irish Gaelic cailín, diminutive of caile, girl, from Old Irish. Bell ("How Search Consultants Talk About Female Candidates") in the February issue. I'd like to share a number of observations and generalizations over the past 40 years about women as candidates for the superintendency based only on my own experiences--admittedly an unscientific unscientific Unproven, see there and quite limited view. There were always some exceptions to the following generalizations. Women principals and district superintendents District Superintendent may be:
As an administrator in the mid-'50s and early '60s, I was unable to get women to apply for any administrative or supervisory positions, including chairperson. They did not want to regularly commit time beyond the close of school. They were married and had children and wanted to meet their children when they came home from school. In the late '60s, women began to apply for administrative roles and were most successful in becoming principals. These women had the time and again were willing to devote it to their work. They were well prepared, able, and committed to the task of running a school. Almost all were divorced with grown children, and a few were married with working husbands and grown children. In the early '80s we began to receive applications from women for the superintendency in numbers in numbered parts; as, a book published in numbers. See also: Number that commanded attention. Unfortunately, most candidates seemed to be applying because the women's rights The effort to secure equal rights for women and to remove gender discrimination from laws, institutions, and behavioral patterns. The women's rights movement began in the nineteenth century with the demand by some women reformers for the right to vote, known as suffrage, and movement had made them feel it was their turn to be accepted, without real regard for qualifications. Many were inadequately prepared. In the mid-1980s we had another increase in the number of women candidates and almost all were fully qualified. Most held a doctorate, were serving as assistant superintendents, and were excellent candidates from every point of view. This time they were not only women who were divorced or single, but many had families, and some had children in public schools. It was this group that we were pleased to include as finalists in searches we were doing, and boards of education began to hire them. With the overwhelming majority of graduate students in education in our geographic area being women, I expect an increasing number of women superintendents as present holders of those positions retire. Women still have one major problem in the interview process because they are women. They tend to be seen by board members as too masculine or too feminine. That is, if they can do as well as men in being tough, in being hard negotiators, demanding administrators, and excellent organizers, they are seen as too much like men, too masculine, and board members fear they will not be effective. If, on the other hand, they are women who are pleasant, soft-spoken, and dress as women, they are seen as too soft and unable to control the difficult student, union official, or event. Men are not subjected to this kind of inspection. Women have to be conscious of the problem as they prepare for interviews and boards are slowly learning to judge the track record and not appearance. Interestingly, male board members are learning this more quickly than female board members. The latter are more hostile, as a rule, than the men to the acceptance of women as superintendents in their school districts. |
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