Why Some Of Us Move Regularly.

Someone in education may have held more full-time positions than I, but I doubt it.

I started teaching in my hometown, left in the second year to teach in a nearby town, and returned to my hometown in the third year. I subsequently held two principalships, nine superintendencies in five states, and an associate state commissionership, and served as a management representative for a multinational company--16 positions in 40 years, an average of 2.5 years per job.

Many will look at this record and say, "He can't hold a job." But that is not true. I felt successful in every position I filled and, if I had wanted to, believe I could have made a full career in any one. Further, with that many positions on a resume one had better have substance and charisma or no one would hire you. And I remain a superintendent of schools today.

I moved for many reasons. Primarily I was looking for opportunity, and I didn't mind relocating to realize that opportunity. I held several superintendencies for very short periods (six months in one case) and was able to move to positions of greater responsibility.

Another reason for changing positions was that I enjoyed the quest for a new position. I loved going on as many job interviews as I could get invited to, even when I was not particularly interested in a new position at the time. I consider being interviewed for a job as recreation! It is an opportunity to exchange views, remain current professionally, and challenge myself.

I also had no compunction about leaving a position. In every position I have held, I made many good friends, succeeded at meeting most challenges, and acquired a few battle scars, which hopefully taught me lessons for the future. In each community I served, I still have people I consider my friends.

I also moved because I heeded the advice of one of my professors of educational administration, who said, "Never stay in a superintendency more than five years. In that time frame you will meet all the challenges you are able to meet and you will not meet the challenges you have not yet met." I lived my career accordingly.

Further, I moved periodically because I did not have the emotional patience I see in some administrators. I always have been (and still am) impatient. Many administrators move up the ranks through a school system into positions of greater responsibility and, ultimately, they may be appointed superintendent. They spend their whole 40-year career in one community. For each one who succeeds at this path to the top, there are scores of frustrated prospective superintendents within the school system who never will have the chance. They won't get the opportunity in their own community and for whatever reasons don't want to move.

I did my doctoral dissertation on a comparison of mobile and non-mobile superintendents and how this factor affected their leadership behavior. Their behavior patterns are quite different and the superintendents were divided about equally in the study.

Tedious Tenure

I would have been bored to death staying in one school system for 40-plus years. I could not have stayed in public education. Remaining in one district would have been devastating to me because I had a great need to move on to positions of greater student responsibility or better-paying posts.

Ultimately, the only power a superintendent really has is the power to move. Superintendents who are in trouble with their school board or community, who don't move voluntarily, are cast aside and demoralized. What a terrible waste of talent.