Figure 1.--This boy is waiting to see the headmaster. At this school the headmaster maintained a very formal alkmost austere relationship with the children and the boy is a little worried about the upcoming session.
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Figure 1.--This boy is waiting to see the headmaster. At this school the headmaster maintained a very formal alkmost austere relationship with the children and the boy is a little worried about the upcoming session. |
The appraoch a headmaster sets takes can vary greatly. Some headmasters take almost an autocratic approach to running their school. One management analyst, for example, wrote of theheadmaster at Hill House, “In notes to parents in which he refers to school discipline, the headmaster is abrupt almost to the point of rudeness. Those who don’t like his style have his unqualified blessings in finding other schools for their sons.” The Hill House headmaster himself explains, “I run my school my way. I intend to go on doing so until I’m 99, when the lease on this place runs out. The boys know it and even when they change classes quietly pass his office door which is always open when he is in. Individuals are not always easy to categorize. The same headmaster who runs Hill House. with a firm hand, also says “You have to deal with matters concerning the boys personally. It is not beneath my dignity to do anything with my boys. Why should I be a great superior being?” At one school in Dorset the headmaster was an extremely remote, Olympian figure that the children rarely saw or and were not encouraged to have any contact with. He saw his job as basically a CEO or business manager. None of the children would even think of going to him with a personal problem. Some headmasters take a decidedly different approach. The Elms in Worcester tells parents that the headmaster and his wife “live in and are fully involved and accessible at all times.” At Moor Park in Shropshire the headmaster regularly plays classical music every evening and the children that wish to come in and listen. At one informally run school in Kent the headmaster’s office was almost a crossroads of the school which the older children were encouraged to use virtually throughout the day. He had developed an extremely close relationship with the children who did not hesitate to come to him with their difficult-and some not so difficult-problems. The headmaster at most schools pursue their jobs somewhere between these extremes. The headmaster at most schools he has considerable contact with the children. It is not unusual for most headmasters to meet with 20 or so children each day in his study as well as a variety of other contacts around the school. Often the contact is largely focused on the older children. As most schools generally range from 100-200 prep-age children this means that, except at the larger schools, the headmaster will have weekly contact with most children.
