Principal: A Personal History: A Memoir of Life Inside Schools

Principal: A Personal History reveals the author's improbable fifteen-year journey leading schools in her hometown, a place where the American Dream meets the social politics of the borderlands. Jump right into the swirl of a single day in the spring of the author’s final year on the job. Watch and listen as children and adults, conversations and crises, along with missteps and small victories, all compete for the principal’s attention. The story winds backward in time to reveal the rough start the author experienced at her first school, and the surprising challenges of moving on to her second, where the job got harder instead of easier. Cutting across the competing versions of school reform, this principal’s personal story exposes the inner workings of a job crucial to our nation, but a job in turmoil just below its hearty and earnest surface. While Principal is intended for the general reader, its details make it suitable as a case-study supplement in a graduate-level course for prospective principals.